Related papers: Understanding the physics of the X-factor
The CO-H2 conversion factor (Xco; otherwise known as the X-factor) is observed to be remarkably constant in the Milky Way and in the Local Group (aside from the SMC). To date, our understanding of why Xco should be so constant remains poor.…
We estimate the conversion factor relating CO emission to H2 mass, alpha_CO, in five Local Group galaxies that span approximately an order of magnitude in metallicity - M31, M 33, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), NGC 6822, and the Small…
We made CO(1-0) observations of 103 lines of sight in the core and envelope of the high-latitude cloud MBM 40 to determine how the CO-H_2 conversion factor (X_CO) varies throughout the cloud. Calibrating X_CO with CH data at similar…
CO is the most widely used observational tracer of molecular gas. The observable CO luminosity is translated to H_2 mass via a conversion factor, X_CO, which is a source of uncertainty and bias. Despite variations in X_CO, the…
We investigate the chemical evolution of a forming molecular cloud behind an interstellar shock wave. We conduct three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations of the converging flow of atomic gas, including a simple chemical network…
The CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor ($X_\mathrm{CO}$) is known to correlate with the metallicity ($Z$). The dust abundance, which is related to the metallicity, is responsible for this correlation through dust shielding of dissociating…
A steep metallicity dependence of the CO-to-H2 conversion factor X of the form log X = 12.2 - 2.5 log[O]/[H], based on a sample of 20 (extra)galactic determinations, is presented and discussed. The apparently less steep dependence found…
We show that the XCO factor, which converts the CO luminosity into the column density of molecular hydrogen has similar values for dense, fully molecular gas and for diffuse, partially molecular gas. We discuss the reasons of this…
H2 column densities towards CO clouds in the LMC and SMC are estimated from their far-infrared surface brightness and HI column density. N(H2)/I(CO) conversion factors are X(LMC) = 1.3 and X(SMC) = 12 (unit: 10**21 mol cm**-2 (K km/s)**-1).…
Low-metallicity dwarf galaxies often show no or little CO emission, despite the intense star formation observed in local samples. Both simulations and resolved observations indicate that molecular gas in low-metallicity galaxies may reside…
The CO-H2 conversion factor in galaxies is typically described as bimodal: one value for discs and quiescent regions, and another (lower) value for mergers and starbursts. In this proceeding, I will describe both empirical observational…
The factor relating CO emission to molecular hydrogen column density, XCO, is still subject to uncertainty, in particular at low metallicity. Here, to quantify XCO at two different spatial resolutions, we exploit a dust-based method…
We present theoretically-established values of the CO-to-H2 and C-to-H2 conversion factors that may be used to estimate the gas masses of external galaxies. We consider four distinct galaxy types, represented by M51, NGC 6946, M82 and SMC…
Aims: We wish to separate and quantify the CO luminosity and CO-H2 conversion factor applicable to diffuse but partially-molecular ISM when H2 and CO are present but C+ is the dominant form of gas-phase carbon. Methods: We discuss galactic…
The total mass estimate of molecular clouds suffers from the uncertainty in the H$_2$-CO conversion factor, the so-called $X_{\rm CO}$ factor, which is used to convert the $^{12}$CO (1--0) integrated intensity to the H$_2$ column density.…
Carbon monoxide (CO) emission is a widely used tracer of molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) in the interstellar medium (ISM), owing to its abundance, low excitation energy, and ease of detection in cold molecular environments, in contrast to…
We study the CO(1-0)-to-H$_2$ conversion factor ($X_{\rm CO}$) and the line ratio of CO(2-1)-to-CO(1-0) ($R_{21}$) across a wide range of metallicity ($0.1 \leq Z/Z_\odot \leq 3$) in high-resolution (~0.2 pc) hydrodynamical simulations of a…
We model the effect of grain size distribution in a galaxy on the evolution of CO and H$_2$ abundances. The formation and dissociation of CO and H$_2$ in typical dense clouds are modelled in a manner consistent with the grain size…
To understand the impact of low metallicities on giant molecular cloud (GMC) structure, we compare far infrared dust emission, CO emission, and dynamics in the star-forming complex N83 in the Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Dust…
Analyzing the Galactic plane CO survey with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope, we compared the spectral column density (SCD) of H$_2$ calculated for $^{12}$CO line using the current conversion factor $X_{\rm CO}$ to that for $^{13}$CO line under…