Tracing H2 column density with atomic carbon (CI) and CO isotopologues

TL;DR

This study maps atomic carbon and CO isotopologues in molecular clouds, revealing their spectral similarities, opacity differences, and the necessity of multiple transitions to accurately estimate H2 column density.

Contribution

First detailed comparison of [CI] and 13CO emissions in these clouds, highlighting the importance of multiple [CI] transitions for accurate H2 mapping.

Findings

[CI] has similar spectral profiles to 13CO.

[CI] is mainly detected in gas below 20 K.

Both [CI] and 12CO underestimate total H2 column density.

Abstract

We present first results of neutral carbon ([CI], 3P1 - 3P0 at 492 GHz) and carbon monoxide (13CO, J = 1 - 0) mapping in the Vela Molecular Ridge cloud C (VMR-C) and G333 giant molecular cloud complexes with the NANTEN2 and Mopra telescopes. For the four regions mapped in this work, we find that [CI] has very similar spectral emission profiles to 13CO, with comparable line widths. We find that [CI] has opacity of 0.1 - 1.3 across the mapped region while the [CI]/13CO peak brightness temperature ratio is between 0.2 to 0.8. The [CI] column density is an order of magnitude lower than that of 13CO. The H2 column density derived from [CI] is comparable to values obtained from 12CO. Our maps show CI is preferentially detected in gas with low temperatures (below 20 K), which possibly explains the comparable H2 column density calculated from both tracers (both CI and 12CO underestimate column density), as a significant amount of the CI in the warmer gas is likely in the higher energy state transition ([CI], 3P2 - 3P1 at 810 GHz), and thus it is likely that observations of both the above [CI] transitions are needed in order to recover the total H2 column density.