Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Oct 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010a%26a...521l..16g&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 521, id.L16
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
12
Ism: Clouds, Ism: Molecules, Submillimeter: Ism, Ism: Individual Objects: G10.6-0.4, Ism: Individual Objects: W49N, Ism: Individual Objects: W51
Scientific paper
We report the detection of the ground state N,J = 1,3/2 → 1,1/2 doublet of the methylidyne radical CH at ~532 GHz and ~536 GHz with the Herschel/HIFI instrument along the sight-line to the massive star-forming regions G10.6-0.4 (W31C), W49N, and W51. While the molecular cores associated with these massive star-forming regions show emission lines, clouds in the diffuse interstellar medium are detected in absorption against the strong submillimeter background. The combination of hyperfine structure with emission and absorption results in complex profiles, with overlap of the different hyperfine components. The opacities of most of the CH absorption features are linearly correlated with those of CCH, CN, and HCO+ in the same velocity intervals. In specific narrow velocity intervals, the opacities of CN and HCO+ deviate from the mean trends, giving rise to more opaque absorption features. We propose that CCH can be used as another tracer of the molecular gas in the absence of better tracers, with [CCH]/[ H2] ~ 3.2±1.1×10-8. The observed [CN]/[CH], [CCH]/[CH] abundance ratios suggest that the bulk of the diffuse matter along the lines of sight has gas densities nH = n(H) + 2n(H2) ranging between 100 and 1000 cm-3.
Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Appendices A and B (pages 6, 7) are only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
Bell Thomas A.
Black John Harry
Boulanger Francois
Caux Emmanuel
Cernicharo Jose
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