ALMA OBSERVATIONS OF WARM MOLECULAR GAS AND COLD DUST IN NGC 34The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

We present Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle-0 observations of the CO (6-5) line emission (rest-frame frequency = 691.473 GHz) and of the 435 mu m dust continuum emission in the nuclear region of NGC 34, a local luminous infrared galaxy at a distance of 84 Mpc (1 " = 407 pc) which contains a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus (AGN) and a nuclear starburst. The CO emission is well resolved by the ALMA beam (0." 26x 0." 23), with an integrated flux of fCO(6-5) = 1004 (+/- 151) Jy km s-1. Both the morphology and kinematics of the CO (6-5) emission are rather regular, consistent with a compact rotating disk with a size of 200 pc. A significant emission feature is detected on the redshifted wing of the line profile at the frequency of the (HCN)-C-13 (8-7) line, with an integrated flux of 17.7 +/- 2.1(random) +/- 2.7(systematic) Jy km s(-1). However, it cannot be ruled out that the feature is due to an outflow of warm dense gas with a mean velocity of 400 km s(-1). The continuum is resolved into an elongated configuration, and the observed flux corresponds to a dustmass ofM(dust) = 10(6.97 +/- 0.13) M circle dot. An unresolved central core (radius +/- 50 pc) contributes 28% of the continuum flux and 19% of the CO (6-5) flux, consistent with insignificant contributions of the AGN to both emissions. Both the CO (6-5) and continuum spatial distributions suggest a very high gas column density (>= 104 M circle dot pc (2)) in the nuclear region at radius <= 100 pc.