The thinnest cold HI clouds in the diffuse interstellar medium?
Astrophysics
2009-11-11 v2
Abstract
We confirm and discuss recently discovered cold HI clouds with column densities among the lowest ever detected. The column densities of Cold Neutral Medium (CNM) towards 3C286 and 3C287 are ~10^18 cm^-2, below an observational lower limit, and also below tiny-scale-atomic clouds detected by VLBI and time-variable profiles against pulsars. These column densities are close to the minimum imposed by thermal evaporation. The fractions of the CNM to total HI towards 3C286 and 3C287 are ~4% and <2%, respectively. We discuss the CNM fraction and the CNM clouds in relation to several theoretical models.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0505106,
title = {The thinnest cold HI clouds in the diffuse interstellar medium?},
author = {Snezana Stanimirovic and Carl Heiles},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0505106},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
small changes, accepted by ApJ