Interpreting Molecular Observations of Translucent Clouds

Details Interpreting Molecular Observations of Translucent Clouds Interpreting Molecular Observations of Translucent Clouds

May 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...210.1901a&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society Meeting 210, #19.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.119

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Translucent clouds are neutral/molecular regions of the ISM with low extinction (AV = 1-5) which are usually distant from a significant source of UV radiation. These regions have most hydrogen in the form of H2, but usually only a small fraction of heavy elements tied up in molecules. Translucent clouds therefore offer an excellent opportunity to study an important phase of interstellar chemistry, the region between the H-->H2 and C+-->C-->CO transition zones. Additionally, these regions are ideal for studying the chemistry of low density, low UV intensity photodissociation regions (PDRs). In this work, we present theoretical calculations of molecular column densities along translucent sightlines, with the goal of better understanding the physical conditions in these regions. We focus primarily on H2, CH+, and CO, which are commonly detected along translucent sightlines through UV absorption studies. We show how the column densities of these species depend on several parameters, such as hydrogen density, UV intensity, and cosmic ray ionization rate, and discuss the primary formation/destruction channels for each molecule. We compare our models to existing UV absorption studies and find a range of parameters which yield good agreement with observation.

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