Origin and z-distribution of Galactic diffuse [CII] emission

TL;DR

This study maps the spatial distribution of diffuse [CII] emission in the Milky Way, revealing its origins mainly from the warm ionized medium and diffuse molecular and atomic clouds, with implications for understanding star formation regions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed 2-D spatial and vertical distribution maps of [CII] emission components in the Galaxy, distinguishing their sources and scale heights.

Findings

Diffuse [CII] emission is widespread, with a larger z-scale height than total [CII] or CO.

Majority of diffuse [CII] in the inner Galaxy originates from the WIM (~21%).

The warm-H2 gas traced by [CII] peaks between 4-7 kpc, correlating with star formation activity.

Abstract

We determine the source of the diffuse [CII] emission by studying its spatial (radial and vertical) distributions. We used the HIFI [CII] Galactic survey (GOT C+), along with HI, 12CO, and 13CO data toward 354 lines of sight, and several HIFI [CII] and [CI] position-velocity maps. We quantified the emission in each spectral line profile by evaluating the intensities in 3 km/s wide velocity bins, 'spaxels'. Using the detection of [CII] with CO or [CI], we separated the dense and diffuse gas components. We derived 2-D Galactic disk maps using the spaxel velocities for kinematic distances. We separated the warm and cold H2 gases by comparing CO emissions with and without associated [CII]. We find evidence of widespread diffuse [CII] emission with a z-scale distribution larger than that for the total [CII] or CO. and it consists of (i) diffuse molecular (CO-faint) H2 clouds and (ii) diffuse HI clouds and/or WIM. In the inner Galaxy we find a lack of [CII] detections in a majority (~62%) of HI spaxels and show that the diffuse component primarily comes from the WIM (~21%) and that the HI gas is not a major contributor to the diffuse component (~6%). The warm-H2 radial profile shows an excess in the range 4 to 7 kpc, consistent with enhanced star formation there. We derive, for the first time, the 2-D [CII] spatial distribution in the plane and the z-distributions of the individual [CII] gas component. We estimate the fractional [CII] emission tracing (i) H2 gas in dense and diffuse molecular clouds as ~48% and ~ 14%, respectively, (ii) in the HI gas ~18%, and (iii) in the WIM ~21%. Including non-detections from HI increases the [CII] in HI to ~ 27%. The z-scale distributions FWHM are [CII] sources with CO, ~130 pc, (CO-faint) diffuse H2 gas, ~200 pc, and the diffuse HI and WIM, ~330 pc. CO observations, when combined with [CII], probe the warm-H2 gas, tracing star formation.