Variations between Dust and Gas in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium

TL;DR

This study investigates the variations in gas-to-dust ratios in diffuse interstellar clouds using Planck and Arecibo data, revealing significant differences and exploring potential causes such as molecular gas, optical depth, and grain property changes.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of gas-to-dust ratio variations within isolated interstellar clouds and evaluates multiple hypotheses for these differences.

Findings

Gas-to-dust ratio varies significantly between and within clouds.

Bright clouds have H2/CO ratios similar to galactic plane clouds.

Optical depth of 21-cm lines is higher than previously estimated.

Abstract

Using the Planck far-infrared and Arecibo GALFA 21-cm line surveys, we identified a set of isolated interstellar clouds (approximately degree-sized on the sky and comprising 100 solar masses) and assessed the ratio of gas mass to dust mass. Significant variations of the gas-to-dust ratio are found both from cloud to cloud and within regions of individual clouds; within the clouds, the atomic gas per unit dust decreases by more than a factor of 3 compared to the standard gas-to-dust ratio. Three hypotheses are considered. First, the apparently low gas-to-dust ratio could be due to molecular gas. Comparing to Planck CO maps, the brightest clouds have a H2/CO ratio comparable to galactic plane clouds, but a strong lower limit is placed on the ratio for other clouds, such that the required amount of molecular gas is far higher than would be expected based on the CO upper limits. Second, we consider self-absorbed 21-cm lines and find the optical depth must be approximately 3, significantly higher than found from surveys of radio sources. Third, grain properties may change within the clouds: they become more emissive when they are colder, while not utilizing heavy elements that already have their cosmic abundance fully locked into grains. It is possible all three processes are active, and follow-up studies will be required to disentangle them and measure the true total gas and dust content of interstellar clouds.