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Related papers: The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor

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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…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 F. P. Israel

We investigate how the X factor, the ratio of H_2 column density (NH2) to velocity-integrated CO intensity (W), is determined by the physical properties of gas in model molecular clouds (MCs). We perform radiative transfer calculations on…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-27 Rahul Shetty , Simon C. Glover , Cornelis P. Dullemond , Eve C. Ostriker , Andrew I. Harris , Ralf S. Klessen

Determining the efficiency with which gas is converted into stars in galaxies requires an accurate determination of the total reservoir of molecular gas mass. However, despite being the most abundant molecule in the Universe, H$_2$ is…

Using the atomic carbon [CI](1$-$0) and [CI](2$-$1) emission maps observed with the $Herschel\ Space\ Observatory$, and CO(1$-$0), HI, infrared and submm maps from literatures, we estimate the [CI]-to-H$_2$ and CO-to-H$_2$ conversion…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-04-28 Qian Jiao , Yu Gao , Yinghe Zhao

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-16 David L. Cotten , Loris Magnani

We present models of CO(1-0) emission from Milky Way-mass galaxies at redshift zero in the FIRE-2 cosmological zoom-in simulations. We calculate the molecular abundances by post-processing the simulations with an equilibrium chemistry…

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-to-H$_2$ conversion factor ($\alpha_\rm{CO}$) is central to measuring the amount and properties of molecular gas. It is known to vary with environmental conditions, and previous studies have revealed lower $\alpha_\rm{CO}$ in the…

We investigated the correlation between intensities of the $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO ($J=1$-0) lines toward the Galactic giant molecular clouds (GMCs) W51A, W33, N35-N36 complex, W49A, M17SW, G12.02-00.03, W43, and M16 using the FUGIN (FOREST…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-11-27 Mikito Kohno , Yoshiaki Sofue

We wish to relate the degree scale structure of galactic diffuse clouds to sub-arcsecond atomic and molecular absorption spectra obtained against extragalactic continuum background sources. To do this, we used the ARO 12m telescope to map…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-04 H. S. Liszt , J. Pety

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).…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-12-18 F. P. Israel

HCN and HCO$^+$ are the most common dense gas tracers used both in the Milky Way and external galaxies. The luminosity of HCN and HCO$^+$ $J = 1-0$ lines are converted to a dense gas mass by the conversion factor, $\alpha_{Q}$.…

We simultaneously measured the spatially-resolved CO-to-H$_{2}$ conversion factor ($\alpha_\mathrm{CO}$) and dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) in nearby galaxies on a kiloparsec scale. In this study, we used $^{12}$CO($J=1-0$) data obtained by the…

Emission from carbon monoxide (CO) is ubiquitously used as a tracer of dense star forming molecular clouds. There is, however, growing evidence that a significant fraction of CO emission originates from diffuse molecular gas. Quantifying…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-03-09 Julia Roman-Duval , Mark Heyer , Christopher Brunt , Paul Clark , Ralf Klessen , Rahul Shetty

To test the theoretical understanding that finding bright CO emission depends primarily on dust shielding, we investigate the relationship between CO emission ($I_{\rm CO}$) and the amount of dust (estimated from IR emission and expressed…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-20 Cheoljong Lee , Adam K. Leroy , Scott Schnee , Tony Wong , Alberto D. Bolatto , Remy Indebetouw , Monica Rubio

We explore the utility of CI as an alternative high-fidelity gas mass tracer for Galactic molecular clouds. We evaluate the X$_{\rm CI}$-factor for the 609 $\mu$m carbon line, the analog of the CO X-factor, which is the ratio of the H$_2$…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2014-03-05 Stella S. R. Offner , Thomas G. Bisbas , Tom A. Bell , Serena Viti

The CO-to-H$_2$ conversion factor ($\alpha_\rm{CO}$) is critical to studying molecular gas and star formation in galaxies. The value of $\alpha_\rm{CO}$ has been found to vary within and between galaxies, but the specific environmental…

Knowledge of the molecular component of the ISM is fundamental to understand star formation. The H2 component appears to dominate the gas mass in the inner parts of galaxies, while the HI component dominates in the outer parts. Observation…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 F. Combes

We present kiloparsec (kpc) spatial resolution maps of the CO-to-H2 conversion factor (alpha_co) and dust-to-gas ratio (DGR) in 26 nearby, star-forming galaxies. We have simultaneously solved for alpha_co and DGR by assuming that the DGR is…

Using the Large Millimeter Telescope and the SEQUOIA 3~mm focal plane array, we have searched for molecular line emission from two atomic clouds associated with the Fermi Bubble of the Milky Way. Neither 12CO nor 13CO J=1-0 emission is…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-03-12 M. Heyer , E. Di Teodoro , L. Loinard , F. J. Lockman , N. M. McClure-Griffiths , Q. D. Wang