Understanding the physics of the X-factor

Details Understanding the physics of the X-factor Understanding the physics of the X-factor

2011-01-17

arxiv.org/abs/1101.3157v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Galaxy Astrophysics

To appear in "Conditions and impact of star formation: New results with Herschel and beyond", Proceedings of the 5th Zermatt I

Scientific paper

We study the relationship between the H2 and CO abundances in simulated molecular clouds using a fully dynamical model of magnetized turbulence coupled to a detailed chemical network. We find that the CO-to-H2 conversion factor for a given molecular cloud, the so-called X-factor, is determined primarily by the mean extinction of the cloud, rather than by its metallicity. Our results explain the discrepancy observed in low metallicity systems between cloud masses derived from CO observations and other techniques such as infrared emission, and predict that CO-bright clouds in low metallicity systems should be systematically larger and/or denser than Milky Way clouds.

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