2008/06/26 by E. M. Berkhuijsen, A. Fletcher · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Scientific Research and Discoveries #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2008.00526.x
5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters
arxiv created 2008/06/26 · openalex publication_date 2008/08/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract In a search for the signature of turbulence in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) in gas density distributions, we determined the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the average volume densities of the diffuse gas. The densities were derived from dispersion measures and H i column densities towards pulsars and stars at known distances. The PDFs of the average densities of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) and the diffuse atomic gas are close to lognormal, especially when lines of sight at |b| < 5° and |b| ≥ 5° are considered separately. The PDF of 〈nH i〉 at high |b| is twice as wide as that at low |b|. The width of the PDF of the DIG is about 30 per cent smaller than that of the warm H i at the same latitudes. The results reported here provide strong support for the existence of a lognormal density PDF in the diffuse ISM, consistent with a turbulent origin of density structure in the diffuse gas.