TRACING H{sub 2} COLUMN DENSITY WITH ATOMIC CARBON (C I) AND CO ISOTOPOLOGS
- Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Camino El Observatorio 1515, Las Condes, Santiago, Casilla 36-D (Chile)
- School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052 (Australia)
- Joint ALMA Observatory, Santiago (Chile)
- Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Straße 77, 50937 Köln (Germany)
- Northwestern University, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (United States)
We present the first results of neutral carbon ([C I] {sup 3} P {sub 1}-{sup 3} P {sub 0} at 492 GHz) and carbon monoxide ({sup 13}CO, J = 1-0) mapping in the Vela Molecular Ridge cloud C (VMR-C) and the G333 giant molecular cloud complexes with the NANTEN2 and Mopra telescopes. For the four regions mapped in this work, we find that [C I] has very similar spectral emission profiles to {sup 13}CO, with comparable line widths. We find that [C I] has an opacity of 0.1-1.3 across the mapped region while the [C I]/{sup 13}CO peak brightness temperature ratio is between 0.2 and 0.8. The [C I] column density is an order of magnitude lower than that of {sup 13}CO. The H{sub 2} column density derived from [C I] is comparable to values obtained from {sup 12}CO. Our maps show that C I is preferentially detected in gas with low temperatures (below 20 K), which possibly explains the comparable H{sub 2} column density calculated from both tracers (both C I and {sup 12}CO underestimate column density), as a significant amount of the C I in the warmer gas is likely in the higher energy state transition ([C I] {sup 3} P {sub 2}-{sup 3} P {sub 1} at 810 GHz), and thus it is likely that observations of both the above [C I] transitions are needed in order to recover the total H{sub 2} column density.
- OSTI ID:
- 22364842
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 797, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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