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First detection of [N II] 205 micrometer absorption in interstellar gas by Persson, C. M.; Gerin, M.; Mookerjea, B.; Black, J. H.; Olberg, M.; Goicoechea, J. R.; Hassel, G. E.; Falgarone, E.; Levrier, F.; Menten, K. M.; Pety, J. is a scholarly article available to read on EtoBox.

What is First detection of [N II] 205 micrometer absorption in interstellar gas about?

We present high resolution [NII] 205 micrometer ^3P_1-^3P_0 spectra obtained with Herschel-HIFI towards a small sample of far-infrared bright star forming regions in the Galactic plane: W31C (G10.6-0.4), W49N (G43.2-0.1), W51 (G49.5-0.4), and G34.3+0.1. All sources display an emission line profile associated directly with the HII regions themselves. For the first time we also detect absorption of the [NII] 205 micrometer line by extended low-density foreground material towards W31C and W49N over a wide range of velocities. We attribute this absorption to the warm ionised medium (WIM) and find N(N^+)\approx 1.5x10^17 cm^-2 towards both sources. This is in agreement with recent Herschel-HIFI observations of [CII] 158 micrometer, also observed in absorption in the same sight-lines, if \approx7-10 % of all C^+ ions exist in the WIM on average. Using an abundance ratio of [N]/[H] = 6.76x10^-5 in the gas phase we find that the mean electron and proton volume densities are ~0.1-0.3 cm^-3 assuming a WIM volume filling fraction of 0.1-0.4 with a corresponding line-of-sight filling fraction of 0.46-0.74. A low density and a high WIM filling fraction are also supported by RADEX modelling of t

Author

Persson, C. M.; Gerin, M.; Mookerjea, B.; Black, J. H.; Olberg, M.; Goicoechea, J. R.; Hassel, G. E.; Falgarone, E.; Levrier, F.; Menten, K. M.; Pety, J.

Published

2014

Language

EN