Title: New ALMA observations of the Galactic Center Circumnuclear Disk

Abstract:
I will present first results from a band 3 and 6 excitation study of the gas within 2 parsecs of the 
central supermassive black hole of the Milky Way. These data comprise a comprehensive 
survey of this region at arcsecond (<0.1 pc) resolution in numerous spectral lines, including 
isotopologues and vibrationally excited lines that are thought to trace the radiation field in this 
extreme environment. The results of this project will give the best constraints to date on the gas 
density of this region and the potential of this gas to form stars. These data will also yield 
important insight into the role that opacity and radiative excitation may play in complicating the 
determination of gas densities via excitation analysis in more extreme environments.