A molecular gas phase in the Cold Neutral Medium?
| dc.creator | Papadopoulos, Padeli P. | |
| dc.date | 2004-03-03 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T02:12:29Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T02:12:29Z | |
| dc.description | I examine the possibility that the Cold Neutral Medium of the interstellar medium in galaxies contains a molecular gas phase that may represent a significant and even the dominant amount of its mass in metal-poor regions. In spiral galaxies such regions are found at large galactocentric distances where diffuse H$_2$ gas will be untraceable through its feeble $ ^{12}$CO J=1--0 emission, the very lack of it being also responsible its higher kinetic temperatures ($\rm T_k\sim 60-100$ K). Sensitive sub-mm imaging of spiral galaxies has demonstrated the existence of dust well inside their HI gas distribution while recent observational work suggests a high H$_2$ formation rate from HI association onto grains. The latter is indeed a critical unknown and a high value can easily compensate for the reduction of the available grain surface in the metal-poor environments giving rise to a CO-poor, diffuse H$_2$ phase that may then contribute significantly to the mass and pressure of the interstellar medium in such environments. | |
| dc.description | Accepted for publication in "The Neutral ISM in Starburst Galaxies" (Conference Series of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific), 4 pages | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403087 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403087 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/7467 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | A molecular gas phase in the Cold Neutral Medium? | |
| dc.type | text |