scholarly journals OH absorption in the first quadrant of the Milky Way as seen by THOR

2018 ◽  
Vol 618 ◽  
pp. A159 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Rugel ◽  
H. Beuther ◽  
S. Bihr ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
J. Ott ◽  
...  

Context. The hydroxyl radical (OH) is present in the diffuse molecular and partially atomic phases of the interstellar medium (ISM), but its abundance relative to hydrogen is not clear. Aims. We aim to evaluate the abundance of OH with respect to molecular hydrogen using OH absorption against cm-continuum sources over the first Galactic quadrant. Methods. This OH study is part of the H I/OH/Recombination line survey of the inner Milky Way (THOR). THOR is a Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) large program of atomic, molecular and ionized gas in the range 15° ≤ l ≤ 67° and |b|≤ 1°. It is the highest-resolution unbiased OH absorption survey to date towards this region. We combine the optical depths derived from these observations with literature 13CO(1–0) and H I observations to determine the OH abundance. Results. We detect absorption in the 1665 and 1667 MHz transitions, that is, the “main” hyperfine structure lines, for continuum sources stronger than Fcont ≥ 0.1 Jy beam−1. OH absorption is found against approximately 15% of these continuum sources with increasing fractions for stronger sources. Most of the absorption occurs in molecular clouds that are associated with Galactic H II regions. We find OH and 13CO gas to have similar kinematic properties. The data indicate that the OH abundance decreases with increasing hydrogen column density. The derived OH abundance with respect to the total hydrogen nuclei column density (atomic and molecular phase) is in agreement with a constant abundance for AV < 10−20. Towards the lowest column densities, we find sources that exhibit OH absorption but no 13CO emission, indicating that OH is a well suited tracer of the low column density molecular gas. We also present spatially resolved OH absorption towards the prominent extended H II-region W43. Conclusions. The unbiased nature of the THOR survey opens a new window onto the gas properties of the interstellar medium. The characterization of the OH abundance over a large range of hydrogen gas column densities contributes to the understanding of OH as a molecular gas tracer and provides a starting point for future investigations.

1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-94
Author(s):  
J.L. Linsky, ◽  
W.B. Landsman ◽  
B.D. Savage ◽  
S.R. Heap ◽  
A.M. Smith ◽  
...  

1991 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
pp. 429-430
Author(s):  
Monica Rubio

We summarize the results of observations of molecular gas from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) made with low angular resolution (8'.8). These observations show that the CO emission is weak (TA˜ 0.04K) and that the CO luminosities of the Clouds are low compared to those of Galactic molecular clouds. The factor to convert the CO luminosity to molecular hydrogen column density for the SMC is ˜20 and three times larger than those derived for clouds in our Galaxy and in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) respectively. In addition, we present preliminary results of high resolution (40″) observations of SMC molecular clouds made with the SEST telescope.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 424-424
Author(s):  
D.A. Riechers ◽  
F. Walter ◽  
C.L. Carilli ◽  
A. Weiss ◽  
F. Bertoldi ◽  
...  

AbstractUsing the Very Large Array (VLA), we have detected the HCO+(1–0) emission line towards the Cloverleaf quasar (z = 2.56; Riechers et al. 2006). This is the first detection of ionized molecular gas emission at high redshift (z>2). HCO+ emission is a star formation indicator similar to HCN, tracing dense molecular hydrogen gas within star-forming molecular clouds. We find a HCO+/CO luminosity ratio of 0.08 and a HCO+/HCN luminosity ratio of 0.8 for the Cloverleaf. These ratios fall within the scatter of the same relationships found for low–z star–forming galaxies. However, a HCO+/HCN luminosity ratio close to unity would not be expected for the Cloverleaf if the recently suggested relation between this ratio and the far–infrared luminosity (Graciá–Carpio et al. 2006) were to hold. We conclude that a ratio between HCO+ and HCN luminosity close to 1 is likely due to the fact that the emission from both lines is optically thick and thermalized and emerges from dense regions of similar volumes. We conclude that HCO+ is potentially a good tracer for dense molecular gas at high redshift.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S287) ◽  
pp. 441-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Wardle ◽  
Korinne McDonnell

AbstractOH(1720 MHz) masers are created by the interaction of supernova remnants with molecular clouds. These masers are pumped by collisions in warm, shocked molecular gas with OH column densities in the range 1016–1017, cm−2. Excitation calculations suggest that inversion of the 6049 MHz OH line may occur at the higher column densities that have been inferred from main-line absorption studies of supernova remnants with the Green Bank Telescope. OH(6049 MHz) masers have therefore been proposed as a complementary indicator of remnant-cloud interaction.This motivated searches for 6049 MHz maser emission from supernova remnants using the Parkes 63 m and Effelsberg 100 m telescopes, and the Australia Telescope Compact Array. A total of forty-one remnants have been examined by one or more of these surveys, but without success. To check the accuracy of the OH column densities inferred from the single-dish observations we modelled OH absorption at 1667 MHz observed with the Very Large Array towards three supernova remnants, IC 443, W44 and 3C 391. The results are mixed – the OH column is revised upwards in IC443, downwards in 3C391, and is somewhat reduced in W44. We conclude that OH columns exceeding 1017 cm−2 are indeed present in some supernova remnants and so the lack of any detections is not explained by low OH column density. We discuss the possibility that non-local line overlap is responsible for suppressing the inversion of the 6049 MHz line.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bunyo Hatsukade ◽  
Kana Morokuma-Matsui ◽  
Masao Hayashi ◽  
Nozomu Tominaga ◽  
Yoichi Tamura ◽  
...  

Abstract We present the results of CO(1–0) observations of the host galaxy of a Type I superluminous supernova (SLSN-I), SN 2017egm, one of the closest SLSNe-I at z = 0.03063, by using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The molecular gas mass of the host galaxy is Mgas = (4.8 ± 0.3) × 109 M⊙, placing it on the sequence of normal star-forming galaxies in an Mgas–star-formation rate (SFR) plane. The molecular hydrogen column density at the location of SN 2017egm is higher than that of the Type II SN PTF10bgl, which is also located in the same host galaxy, and those of other Type II and Ia SNe located in different galaxies, suggesting that SLSNe-I have a preference for a dense molecular gas environment. On the other hand, the column density at the location of SN 2017egm is comparable to those of Type Ibc SNe. The surface densities of molecular gas and the SFR at the location of SN 2017egm are consistent with those of spatially resolved local star-forming galaxies and follow the Schmidt–Kennicutt relation. These facts suggest that SLSNe-I can occur in environments with the same star-formation mechanism as in normal star-forming galaxies.


1991 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-123
Author(s):  
Barry Y. Welsh ◽  
Peter W. Vedder ◽  
John V. Vallerga

AbstractWe present high-resolution absorption measurements (R ~ 150 000) of the interstellar Na I D-lines at 5890 Å observed towards 46 early-type stars. The distance to these stars ranges from 20–200 pc, allowing a probe of the local interstellar medium (LISM). The velocity structure, velocity dispersions and column densities of the various cloud components have been derived using an absorption line-fitting analysis. Sodium column densities have been determined for 23 of the 46 target stars. No sodium absorption was detected towards any of the stars with distances < 43 pc. Such null results imply a corresponding hydrogen column density limit, N(H), of ~ 2.5 × 1018cm−2 in many directions in the LISM. For three exceptionally vacant lines of sight (to β CMa, 36 Lyn and η Hya) this limit of low hydrogen column density can be placed out to a much further distance of > 150 pc.We have plotted the distribution of sodium column density in the LISM for a total of 118 stars in the form of three galactic maps. These maps qualitatively show that the present picture of the LISM, in which the first 50 pc is essentially free of dense clumps of neutral gas, is correct. Our map of sodium columns for stars with distances > 100 pc shows that the region within the galactic quadrant defined by 200° < l < 270° shows a conspicuous absence of any significant concentration of neutral gas. This region will be a prime direction of study for forthcoming soft X-ray and extreme ultraviolet satellite experiments.


1999 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 114-115
Author(s):  
Soojong Pak ◽  
D. T. Jaffe

In the Milky Way, the 12CO J = 1 → 0 line traces the molecular gas content. The conversion factor, XGAL, between the H2 column density, N(H2), and the velocity integrated intensity of CO, I(CO), has been measured via the virial theorem or via γ-ray emission (Solomon et al. 1987; Bloemen et al. 1986; Digel et al. 1997; and references therein).How can we apply XGAL to other galaxies where the metallicities are different from that of our Galaxy? The metallicity dependence of the conversion factor has been an issue. Cohen et al. (1988), Wilson (1995), and Arimoto, Sofue, & Tsujimoto (1996) argued that the value of X increases as the metallicity of the individual galaxy decreases. In contrast, Taylor, Kobulnicky, & Skillman (1996) showed that some low abundance galaxies have lower X.


2019 ◽  
Vol 880 (1) ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feige Wang ◽  
Ran Wang ◽  
Xiaohui Fan ◽  
Xue-Bing Wu ◽  
Jinyi Yang ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 617 ◽  
pp. A54 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Liszt ◽  
M. Gerin ◽  
I. Grenier

Context. More gas is inferred to be present in molecular cloud complexes than can be accounted for by H I and CO emission, a phenomenon known as dark neutral medium (DNM) or CO-dark gas for the molecular part. Aims. We aim to investigate whether molecular gas can be detected in Chamaeleon where gas column densities in the DNM were inferred and CO emission was not detected. Methods. We took λ3 mm absorption profiles of HCO+ and other molecules toward 13 background quasars across the Chamaeleon complex, only one of which had detectable CO emission. We derived the H2 column density assuming N(HCO+)/N(H2) = 3 × 10−9 as before. Results. With the possible exception of one weak continuum target, HCO+ absorption was detected in all directions, C2H in eight directions and HCN in four directions. The sightlines divide into two groups according to their DNM content, with one group of eight directions having N(DNM) ≳ 2 × 1020 cm−2 and another group of five directions having N(DNM) < 0.5 × 1020 cm−2. The groups have comparable mean N(H I) associated with Chamaeleon 6−7 × 1020 cm−2 and total hydrogen column density per unit reddening 6−7 × 1021 cm−2 mag−1. They differ, however, in having quite different mean reddening 0.33 vs. 0.18 mag, mean N(DNM) 3.3 vs. 0.14 × 1020 cm−2 and mean molecular column density 2N(H2) = 5.6 vs. 0.8 × 1020 cm−2. The gas at more positive velocities is enriched in molecules and DNM. Conclusions. Overall the quantity of H2 inferred from HCO+ can fully account for the previously inferred DNM along the sightlines studied here. H2 is concentrated in the high-DNM group, where the molecular fraction is 46% vs. 13% otherwise and 38% overall. Thus, neutral gas in the outskirts of the complex is mostly atomic but the DNM is mostly molecular. Saturation of the H I emission line profile may occur along three of the four sightlines having the largest DNM column densities, but there is no substantial reservoir of “dark” atomic or molecular gas that remains undetected as part of the inventory of dark neutral medium.


1999 ◽  
Vol 510 (2) ◽  
pp. 759-783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana S. Balser ◽  
T. M. Bania ◽  
Robert T. Rood ◽  
T. L. Wilson

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