ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) – I. Overview

Longmore, SN; Bally, J; Barnes, AT; Battersby, C; Colzi, L; Ginsburg, A; Henshaw, JD; Ho, PTP; Jiménez-Serra, I; Kruijssen, JMD; Mills, EAC; Petkova, MA; Sormani, MC; Tress, RG; Walker, DL; Wallace, J; Alkhuja, E; Armillotta, L; Budaiev, N; Buddhacharya, R; Bulatek, A; Burton, M; Butterfield, NO; Busch, LA; Caselli, P; Chevance, M; Cook, C; Crowe, S; Díaz-Rodríguez, AK; DiTeodoro, E; Dicker, SR; Dutkowska, KM; Fairley, A; Federrath, C; Fedriani, R; Feng, ZX; Fiteni, K; Fuller, G; García, P; Goicoechea, J; Girichidis, P; Glover, SCO; Gorski, M; Gramze, SR; Gu, QL; Hatchfield, HP; Henkel, C; Houghton, RJ; Hsieh, PY; Hu, Y; Immer, K; Jeff, D; Karoly, J; Kauffmann, J; Klessen, RS; Krumholz, MR; Lazarian, A; Levesque, EM; Liang, FH; Lipman, D; Liu, X; Lu, X; Luo, QY; Lupi, A; McCafferty, L; Martín, S; Mazoochi, F; Morris, MR; Nonhebel, M; Nogueras-Lara, F; Oka, T; Ott, J; Padovani, M; Pan, X; Pineda, JE; Pillai, TGS; Pound, MW; Torres, MR; Riquelme-Vásquez, D; Rivilla, VM; Salo, G; Sánchez-Monge, Á; Santa-Maria, MG; Schoedel, R; Schmiedeke, A; Schultheis, M; Smith, HA; Sofue, Y; Testi, L; Tremblay, GR; Vasini, A; Vermariën, G; Vikhlinin, A; Viti, S; Wang, QD; Xu, F; Zhang, S; Zhang, Q

ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) – I. Overview

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Longmore, SN ORCID: 0000-0001-6353-0170, Bally, J, Barnes, AT, Battersby, C, Colzi, L, Ginsburg, A, Henshaw, JD ORCID: 0000-0001-9656-7682, Ho, PTP, Jiménez-Serra, I, Kruijssen, JMD, Mills, EAC, Petkova, MA, Sormani, MC, Tress, RG, Walker, DL, Wallace, J, Alkhuja, E, Armillotta, L, Budaiev, N, Buddhacharya, R ORCID: 0009-0004-0685-7678 et al (2026) ALMA Central Molecular Zone Exploration Survey (ACES) – I. Overview. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 552 (2). ISSN 0035-8711

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Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag377

Abstract

The mass flows and energy cycles within the inner regions of galaxies exert a powerful influence on the evolution of the galaxy population. The centre of the Milky Way is the only galactic nucleus for which it is possible to resolve the physical mechanisms that drive these cycles, namely star formation and feedback, while also tracing global ((Formula presented) 100 pc) processes which determine where and when star formation and feedback occur. We present an overview of ACES, the ‘Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) CMZ Exploration Survey’, a (Formula presented) angular resolution, (Formula presented) km s(Formula presented) spectral resolution ALMA Band 3 ((Formula presented) GHz), survey of the ‘Central Molecular Zone’ (CMZ) – the inner-100 pc of the Galaxy (l = 359.4(Formula presented) to 0.8(Formula presented) ). ACES spectral set-up is tuned to observe optimal tracers of the physical, chemical, and kinematic conditions in over 70 spectral features (e.g. HCO(Formula presented), HNCO, SiO, H40 (Formula presented), complex molecules) of the gas in the CMZ, to derive the properties of all potentially star-forming Galactic Centre gas, from global scales (100 pc) to dense (Formula presented) 0.05 pc structures that are expected to host individual star-forming cores, down to subsonic (<0.4 km s(Formula presented) ) velocity resolution. In this overview paper, we provide the scientific justification for the ACES survey, explain the choice of observational set-up, and describe the data legacy products. Finally, we show some of the initial ACES data which highlight the power of ACES’ combination of high angular resolution, unprecedented spatial dynamic range, sensitivity, spectral resolution and spectral bandwidth as an illustration of how ACES aims to understand how global processes set the location, intensity, and time-scales for star formation and feedback in the CMZ.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	surveys; ISM: kinematics and dynamics; ISM: evolution; ISM: molecules; Galaxy: centre; galaxies: star formation; 5101 Astronomical Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; 5101 Astronomical sciences; 5107 Particle and high energy physics; 5109 Space sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date of acceptance:	12 February 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	22 October 2026
Date Deposited:	22 Oct 2026 14:12
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2026 14:12
DOI or ID number:	10.1093/mnras/stag377
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29732

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