OH+ and H2O+ absorption toward PKS1830-211
Abstract
We report the detection of OH+ and H2O+ in the z=0.89 absorber toward the lensed quasar PKS1830-211. The abundance ratio of OH+ and H2O+ is used to quantify the molecular hydrogen fraction (fH2) and the cosmic-ray ionization rate of atomic hydrogen (zH) along two lines of sight, located at ~2 kpc and ~4 kpc to either side of the absorber's center. The molecular fraction decreases outwards, from ~0.04 to ~0.02, comparable to values measured in the Milky Way at similar galactocentric radii. For zH, we find values of ~2x10^-14 s^-1 and ~3x10^-15 s^-1, respectively, which are slightly higher than in the Milky Way at comparable galactocentric radii, possibly due to a higher average star formation activity in the z=0.89 absorber. The ALMA observations of OH+, H2O+, and other hydrides toward PKS1830-211 reveal the multi-phase composition of the absorbing gas. Taking the column density ratios along the southwest and northeast lines of sight as a proxy of molecular fraction, we classify the species ArH+, OH+, H2Cl+, H2O+, CH, and HF as tracing gases increasingly more molecular. Incidentally, our data allow us to improve the accuracy of H2O+ rest frequencies and thus refine the spectroscopic parameters.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1609.01060,
title = {OH+ and H2O+ absorption toward PKS1830-211},
author = {S. Muller and H. S. P. M"uller and J. H. Black and A. Beelen and F. Combes and S. Curran and M. Gerin and M. Guelin and C. Henkel and S. Martin and S. Aalto and E. Falgarone and K. M. Menten and P. Schilke and T. Wiklind and M. A. Zwaan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.01060},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in A&A