Browsing by Subject "ultraviolet: ism"

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The Abundance Of Boron In Diffuse Interstellar Clouds
(2011-02) Ritchey, A. M.; Federman, S. R.; Sheffer, Y.; Lambert, David L.; Sheffer, Y.
We present a comprehensive survey of boron abundances in diffuse interstellar clouds from observations made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) of the Hubble Space Telescope. Our sample of 56 Galactic sight lines is the result of a complete search of archival STIS data for the B II lambda 1362 resonance line, with each detection confirmed by the presence of absorption from O I lambda 1355, Cu II lambda 1358, and Ga II lambda 1414 (when available) at the same velocity. Five previous measurements of interstellar B II from Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph observations are incorporated in our analysis, yielding a combined sample that more than quadruples the number of sight lines with significant boron detections. Our survey also constitutes the first extensive analysis of interstellar gallium from STIS spectra and expands on previously published results for oxygen and copper. The observations probe both high-and low-density diffuse environments, allowing the density-dependent effects of interstellar depletion to be clearly identified in the gas-phase abundance data for each element. In the case of boron, the increase in relative depletion with line-of-sight density amounts to an abundance difference of 0.8 dex between the warm and cold phases of the diffuse interstellar medium. The abundance of boron in warm, low-density gas is found to be B/H = (2.4 +/- 0.6) x 10(-10), which represents a depletion of 60% relative to the meteoritic boron abundance. Beyond the effects of depletion, our survey reveals sight lines with enhanced boron abundances that potentially trace the recent production of B-11, resulting from spallation reactions involving either cosmic rays or neutrinos. Future observations will help to disentangle the relative contributions from the two spallation channels for B-11 synthesis.
Characterizing Transition Temperature Gas In The Galactic Corona
(2012-04) Wakker, Bart P.; Savage, Blair D.; Fox, Andrew J.; Benjamin, Robert A.; Shapiro, Paul R.; Shapiro, Paul R.
We present a study of the properties of the transition temperature (T similar to 10(5) K) gas in the Milky Way corona, based on the measurements of O VI, N V, C IV, Si IV, and Fe III absorption lines seen in the far-ultraviolet spectra of 58 sight lines to extragalactic targets, obtained with the Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. In many sight lines the Galactic absorption profiles show multiple components, which are analyzed separately. We find that the highly ionized atoms are distributed irregularly in a layer with a scale height of about 3 kpc, which rotates along with the gas in the disk, without an obvious gradient in the rotation velocity away from the Galactic plane. Within this layer the gas has randomly oriented velocities with a dispersion of 40-60 km s(-1). On average the integrated column densities are log N(O VI) = 14.3, log N(N V) = 13.5, log N(C IV) = 14.2, log N(Si IV) = 13.6, and log N(Fe III) = 14.2, with a dispersion of just 0.2 dex in each case. In sight lines around the Galactic center and Galactic north pole, all column densities are enhanced by a factor similar to 2, while at intermediate latitudes in the southern sky there is a deficit in N(O VI) of about a factor of two, but no deficit for the other ions. We compare the column densities and ionic ratios to a series of theoretical predictions: collisional ionization equilibrium, shock ionization, conductive interfaces, turbulent mixing, thick disk supernovae, static non-equilibrium ionization (NIE) radiative cooling, and an NIE radiative cooling model in which the gas flows through the cooling zone. None of these models can fully reproduce the data, but it is clear that NIE radiative cooling is important in generating the transition temperature gas.
Ultraviolet Survey Of CO And H-2 In Diffuse Molecular Clouds: The Reflection Of Two Photochemistry Regimes In Abundance Relationships
(2008-11) Sheffer, Y.; Rogers, M.; Federman, S. R.; Abel, N. P.; Gredel, R.; Lambert, David L.; Shaw, G.; Federman, S. R.
We carried out a comprehensive far-UV survey of (CO)-C-12 and H-2 column densities along diffuse molecular Galactic sight lines. This sample includes new measurements of CO from HST spectra along 62 sight lines and new measurements of H-2 from FUSE data along 58 sight lines. In addition, high-resolution optical data were obtained at the McDonald and European Southern Observatories, yielding new abundances for CH, CH+, and CN along 42 sight lines to aid in interpreting the CO results. These new sight lines were selected according to detectable amounts of CO in their spectra and provide information on both lower density (<= 100 cm(-3)) and higher density diffuse clouds. A plot of log N(CO) versus log N(H-2) shows that two power-law relationships are needed for a good fit of the entire sample, with a break located at log N(CO, cm(-2)) = 14.1 and log N(H-2) = 20.4, corresponding to a change in production route for CO in higher density gas. Similar logarithmic plots among all five diatomic molecules reveal additional examples of dual slopes in the cases of CO versus CH (break at log N 14: 1, 13.0), CH+ versus H-2 (13.1, 20.3), and CH+ versus CO (13.2, 14.1). We employ both analytical and numerical chemical schemes in order to derive details of the molecular environments. In the denser gas, where C-2 and CN molecules also reside, reactions involving C+ and OH are the dominant factor leading to CO formation via equilibrium chemistry. In the low-density gas, where equilibrium chemistry studies have failed to reproduce the abundance of CH+, our numerical analysis shows that nonequilibrium chemistry must be employed for correctly predicting the abundances of both CH+ and CO.