Related papers: The Ionization Fraction in Dense Clouds
Molecular clouds interacting with supernova remnants may be subject to a greatly enhanced irradiation by cosmic rays produced at the shocked interface between the ejecta and the molecular gas. Over the past decade, broad-band observations…
Many chemical models of dense interstellar clouds predict that the majority of gas-phase elemental nitrogen should be present as N2, with an abundance approximately five orders of magnitude less than that of hydrogen. As a homonuclear…
We investigated the infrared (IR) dust emission from PN IC 418, using a detailed model controlled by a previous determination of the stellar properties and the characteristics of the photoionized nebula, keeping as free parameters the dust…
This paper outlines a way to determine the ICF using only infrared data. We identify four line pairs, [NeIII] 36$\micron$/[NeII] 12.8$\micron$, [NeIII]~15.6$\micron$ /[NeII] 12.8$\micron$, [ArIII] 9$\micron$/[ArII] 6.9$\micron$, and [ArIII]…
We obtained [O III] narrow-band imaging and multi-slit MXU spectroscopy of the blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy NGC 1705 with FORS2@VLT to derive chemical abundances of PNe and H II regions and, more in general, to characterize the…
The maps presented in Paper I are here used to infer the variation of the column densities of HCO+, DCO+, N2H+, and N2D+ as a function of distance from the dust peak. These results are interpreted with the aid of a crude chemical model…
A significant fraction of the molecular gas in star-forming regions is irradiated by stellar UV photons. In these environments, the electron density (n_e) plays a critical role in the gas dynamics, chemistry, and collisional excitation of…
Chemical abundances of about fifteen elements from oxygen to europium are measured in seven red giants of the two open clusters NGC 2360 and NGC 2447. The effective temperatures of the giants are determined spectroscopically by taking…
We investigate the ionization and the opacity of warm, dense helium under conditions found in the atmospheres of cool white dwarf stars. Our particular interest is in densities up to $\rm 3 g/cm^{3}$ and temperatures from 1000K to 10000K.…
We have obtained high resolution FUSE and HST/STIS echelle observations of the quasar PG 1116+215. The semi-continuous coverage of the ultraviolet spectrum over the wavelength range 916-2800 provides detections of Galactic and high velocity…
$Aims.$ We characterize the molecular-line emission of three clouds whose star-formation rates span one order of magnitude: California, Perseus, and Orion A. $Methods.$ We use stratified random sampling to select positions representing the…
We present new computations of the equilibrium and non-equilibrium cooling efficiencies and ionization states for low-density radiatively cooling gas containing cosmic abundances of the elements H, He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, and Fe. We…
We selected 35 low-mass SFGs (7.9<log(M$_*$/M$_{\odot}$)<10.3) from deep spectroscopic surveys based on their CIII]1908 emission. We used follow-up NIR observations to examine their rest-optical emission lines and identify ionized outflow…
Relativistically broadened and redshifted 6.4 -- 6.9 keV iron K lines are observed from many accretion powered objects, including X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei (AGN). Existence of gas close to the central engine implies large…
We present an analysis of gas densities in the central R=300 parsecs of the Milky Way, focusing on three clouds: GCM-0.02-0.07 (the 50 km/s cloud), GCM-0.13-0.08 (the 20 km/s cloud), and GCM0.25+0.01 (the "Brick"). Densities are determined…
We investigate ionization and heating of gas in the dense, shielded clumps/cores of molecular clouds bathed by an influx of energetic, charged cosmic rays (CRs). These molecular clouds have complex structures, with substantial variation in…
The grating instruments on board Chandra and XMM-Newton now allow measurements of electron densities. These rely on the ratios of fluxes in emission lines, where one line depends on both collisional and radiative decay rates. The electron…
We derive new self-consistent theoretical UV, optical, and IR diagnostics for the ISM pressure and electron density in the ionized nebulae of star-forming galaxies. Our UV diagnostics utilize the inter-combination, forbidden and resonance…
Nitrogen-bearing molecules display variable isotopic fractionation levels in different astronomical environments such as in the interstellar medium or in the Solar System. Models of interstellar chemistry are unable to induce nitrogen…
Emission from high-dipole moment molecules such as HCN allows determination of the density in molecular clouds, and is often considered to trace the "dense" gas available for star formation. We assess the importance of electron excitation…