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 2masspaper.tex A&A, 2003 in press
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%astro-ph/0306200

\documentclass{aa}
\begin{document}

   \title{The line--of--sight distribution of the gas in the inner 60~pc 
of the Galaxy}

   \author{B.~Vollmer\inst{1}, R.~Zylka\inst{2,4} \and  
W.J.~Duschl\inst{3,1}}

   \offprints{B.~Vollmer, e-mail: bvollmer@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de}

   \institute{Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Radioastronomie, Auf dem H\"ugel 69,
             53121 Bonn, Germany. \and
          Phys. Institut d. Universit\"{a}t zu K\"{o}ln, Z\"{u}lpicher 
Str. 77,
          50937 K\"{o}ln, Germany \and
          Institut f\"ur Theoretische
          Astrophysik der Universit\"at Heidelberg, Tiergartenstra{\ss}e 15,
              69121 Heidelberg, Germany \and
          IRAM, 300, rue de la piscine, 38406 Saint Martin d'H\`eres, 
France.}
         

   \date{Received / Accepted}

   \authorrunning{Vollmer et al.}
   \titlerunning{The LOS distribution in the inner 60~pc of the Galaxy}

\abstract{
2MASS K$_{\rm S}$ band data of the inner 60~pc of the Galaxy are used to 
reconstruct
the line-of-sight distances of the giant molecular clouds located in 
this region.
Using the 2MASS H band image of the same region,
two different populations of point sources are identified
according to their flux ratio in the two bands. The population of blue 
point
sources forms a homogeneous foreground that has to be subtracted before 
analyzing
the K$_{\rm S}$ band image. The reconstruction is made using two basic 
assumptions:
(i) an axis-symmetric stellar distribution in the region of interest and 
(ii)
optically thick clouds with an area filling factor of $\sim$1
that block all light of stars located behind them.
Due to the reconstruction method, the relative distance between the 
different cloud
complexes is a robust result, whereas it is not excluded that the 
absolute distance with
respect to Sgr~A$^{*}$
of structures located more than 10~pc in front of Sgr~A$^{*}$ are 
understimated by up to a
factor of 2. It is shown that all structures observed in the 1.2~mm 
continuum and in
the CS(2-1) line are present in absorption. We place the 50~km\,s$^{-1}$ 
cloud complex close to,
but in front of, Sgr~A$^{*}$. The 20~km\,s$^{-1}$ cloud complex is 
located in front of the
50~km\,s$^{-1}$ cloud complex and has a large LOS distance gradient 
along the direction of
the galactic longitude. The bulk of the Circumnuclear Disk is not seen 
in absorption.
This leads to an upper limit of the cloud sizes within the Circumnuclear 
Disk of $\sim$0.06~pc.
\keywords{
Galaxy: Center -- ISM: clouds}
}

\maketitle

\end{document}