Opacity broadening and interpretation of suprathermal CO linewidths: Macroscopic turbulence and tangled molecular clouds

2016/03/28 by A. Hacar, J. Alves, A. Burkert +1
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Homogeneous broadening #Interpretation (philosophy) #Line (geometry) #Molecular cloud #Opacity #Spectral line #Supersonic speed #Thermal #Turbulence #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201527319

published as A&A 591, A104 (2016) · 16 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

arxiv created 2016/03/28 · openalex publication_date 2016/04/27 · arxiv updated 2016/06/22 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Context. Since their first detection in the interestellar medium, (sub-)millimeter line observations of different CO isotopic variants have routinely been employed to characterize the kinematic properties of the gas in molecular clouds. Many of these lines exhibit broad linewidths that greatly exceed the thermal broadening expected for the low temperatures found within these objects. These observed suprathermal CO linewidths are assumed to originate from unresolved supersonic motions inside clouds.

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