The Diffuse Ionized Gas in Spirals - General Properties and Degree of Ionization

Details The Diffuse Ionized Gas in Spirals - General Properties and Degree of Ionization The Diffuse Ionized Gas in Spirals - General Properties and Degree of Ionization

Nov 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..dppkm1001r&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, 44th Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma , abstract #KM1.001

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An important partially ionized astrophysical plasma is the so-called Diffuse Ionized Gas (DIG) or Warm Ionized Medium (WIM), which fills a significant fraction of interstellar space in galaxies. In this review I will begin with a general description of the properties of this medium. In the Milky Way, this gas has an electron density of order 0.1 cm-3, a temperature around 8000 K, and fills about 20% or more of the interstellar volume. It exists as a thick gaseous disk in our Galaxy and other spirals, extending several kiloparsecs or more vertically in some systems, where it is often referred to as a DIG halo. I will then talk about what can be learned about the physical conditions, origin, and sources of ionization and heating of this gas from its optical emission lines. A galaxy's DIG is primarily ionized by its thin layer of massive stars, which is also the main source of heating, but there is strong evidence for either additional sources of ionization, such as shocks, and/or additional non-ionizing heating. Finally, I will talk about constraints from spectroscopy on the degree of ionization of this gas. The observations to date suggest a variety of numbers, but it is unlikely that the gas is completely ionized.

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