APEX spectra of Centaurus A

Optical filaments located at 16 kpc from the galaxy along the radio jet direction show recent star formation, likely triggered by the interaction of the jet with an HI shell. A large reservoir of molecular gas has been discovered outside the HI.

In this reservoir, lies the Horseshoe complex: a filamentary structure seen in CO with ALMA and in Halpha with MUSE. The ionised gas is mostly excited by shocks, with only a minor contribution of star formation. We used the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) to observe the ^12^CO(3-2) and ^12^CO(4-3) transitions, as well as dense gas tracers in the Horseshoe complex. ^12^CO(3-2) and ^12^CO(4-3) are detected for the first time in the northern filaments of Centaurus A, with integrated intensity line ratios R32~0.2 and R43~0.1, compared to the ^12^CO(1-0) emission.