2017ApJ...839....8T -
Astrophys. J., 839, 8-8 (2017/April-2)
OH survey along sightlines of Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+.
TANG N., LI D., HEILES C., YUE N., DAWSON J.R., GOLDSMITH P.F., KRCO M., McCLURE-GRIFFITHS N.M., WANG S., ZUO P., PINEDA J.L. and WANG J.-J.
Abstract (from CDS):
We have obtained OH spectra of four transitions in the 2Π3/2 ground state, at 1612, 1665, 1667, and 1720 MHz, toward 51 sightlines that were observed in the Herschel project Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+. The observations cover the longitude range of (32°, 64°) and (189°, 207°) in the northern Galactic plane. All of the diffuse OH emissions conform to the so-called "Sum Rule" of the four brightness temperatures, indicating optically thin emission conditions for OH from diffuse clouds in the Galactic plane. The column densities of the H I "halos" N(H i) surrounding molecular clouds increase monotonically with OH column density, N(OH), until saturating when N(H I)=1.0×1021 cm–2 and N(OH) 4.5×1015 cm–2, indicating the presence of molecular gas that cannot be traced by H i. Such a linear correlation, albeit weak, is suggestive of H I halos' contribution to the UV shielding required for molecular formation. About 18% of OH clouds have no associated CO emission (CO-dark) at a sensitivity of 0.07 K, but are associated with C+ emission. A weak correlation exists between C+ intensity and OH column density for CO-dark molecular clouds. These results imply that OH seems to be a better tracer of molecular gas than CO in diffuse molecular regions.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Journal keyword(s):
evolution - ISM: clouds - ISM: molecules. - ISM: molecules.
Simbad objects:
6
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