Related papers: The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor
I review studies of the hot gaseous medium in and around nearby normal disk galaxies, including the Milky Way. This medium represents a reservoir of materials required for lasting star formation, a depository of galactic feedback (e.g.,…
We know little about the outermost portions of galaxies because there is little light coming from them. We do know that in many cases atomic hydrogen (HI) extends well beyond the optical radius \cite{Casertano91}. In the centers of…
Carbon monoxide (CO) is widely used as a tracer of molecular hydrogen (H2) in metal-rich galaxies, but is known to become ineffective in low metallicity dwarf galaxies. Atomic carbon has been suggested as a superior tracer of H2 in these…
CO measurements of z~1-4 galaxies have found that their baryonic gas fractions are significantly higher than galaxies at z=0, with values ranging from 20-80 %. Here, we suggest that the gas fractions inferred from observations of…
Diffusion of species in icy dust grain mantles is a fundamental process that shapes the chemistry of interstellar regions; yet measurements of diffusion in interstellar ice analogs are scarce. Here we present measurements of CO diffusion…
We present the largest sample to date of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in a substantial spiral galaxy other than the Milky Way. We map the distribution of molecular gas with high resolution and image fidelity within the central 5 kpc of the…
Measurements of gas mass in protoplanetary gas disks form the basis for estimating the conditions of planet formation. Among the most important constraints derived from disk diagnostics are the abundances of gas-phase species critical for…
While the best tracer of the molecular component and its dynamics in galaxies is the CO molecule, which excitation is revealed by its isotopic and (2-1)/(1-0) ratios, the denser gas is revealed by molecules such as HCN, HNC, HCO+ or CN,…
Gas in galactic disks is collected by gravitational instabilities into giant atomic-molecular complexes, but only the inner, molecular parts of these structures are able to collapse to form stars. Determining what controls the ratio of…
The bulk of the molecular gas in spiral galaxies is under the form of cold H2, that does not radiate and is only suspected through tracer molecules, such as CO. All tracers are biased, and in particular H2 could be highly underestimated in…
Context: We investigated the molecular gas associated with 6.7 GHz methanol masers throughout the Galaxy using a J=1-0 transition of the CO isotopologues. Methods:Using the 13.7-meter telescope at the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO), we…
There are two major theoretical issues for the star formation law (the relation between the surface densities of molecular gas and star formation rate on a galaxy scale): (i) At low metallicity, it is not obvious that star-forming regions…
The HI and CO components of the interstellar medium (ISM) are usually used to derive the dynamical mass M_dyn of nearby galaxies. Both components become too faint to be used as a tracer in observations of high-redshift galaxies. In those…
We present ISO-SWS observations of H2 pure-rotational line emission from the disks around low and intermediate mass pre-main-sequence stars as well as from young stars thought to be surrounded by debris disks. We detect `warm' (T ~ 100-200…
Diffusion of atoms and molecules is a key process for the chemical evolution in the star forming regions of the interstellar medium. Accurate data on the mobility of many important interstellar species is however often not available and…
The formation of molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) and carbon monoxide (CO) is sensitive to the volume and column density distribution of the turbulent interstellar medium. In this paper, we study H$_2$ and CO formation in a large set of…
Protoplanetary disk mass is a key parameter controlling the process of planetary system formation. CO molecular emission is often used as a tracer of gas mass in the disk. In this study we consider the ability of CO to trace the gas mass…
Using three dimensional Monte Carlo radiation transfer models of photoionisation and dust scattering, we explore different components of the widespread diffuse H$\alpha$ emission observed in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way and…
We observed a 10x20 pc region of the molecular cloud M17 in the 12CO and 13CO J=3-2 and J=2-1 transitions to determine their global behavior and to assess the reliability of using ratios of CO line intensities integrated over an entire…
We use archival UV absorption-line data from HST/STIS to statistically analyse the absorption characteristics of the high-velocity clouds (HVCs) in the Galactic halo towards more than 40 extragalactic background sources. We determine…