Detection of [N II] 5755 Emission from Low Density Ionized Interstellar Gas
Astrophysics
2014-10-13 v1
Abstract
The extremely faint, temperature sensitive ``auroral'' emission line [N II] 5755 has been detected from the low density ionized gas along the sight line toward l = 130.0, b = -7.5 using the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM). The intensity of this emission line, relative to the red nebular line [N II] 6584, is found to be twice that observed in bright, classical H II regions surrounding O stars. This implies that the electron temperature of the ionized gas along this sight line is about 2000 K higher than the H II regions, and that the enhanced [N II] 6584/H-Alpha and [S II] 6716/H-Alpha intensity ratios in this low density gas are due at least in part to an elevated temperature.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0101487,
title = {Detection of [N II] 5755 Emission from Low Density Ionized Interstellar Gas},
author = {R. J. Reynolds and N. C. Sterling and L. M. Haffner and S. L. Tufte},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0101487},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
9 pages, 2 figures; Accepted for publication by ApJ Letters