H2 distribution during 2-phase Molecular Cloud Formation

TL;DR

This paper uses high-resolution 3D MHD simulations to explore how the multi-phase structure of the interstellar medium influences the distribution of molecular hydrogen during cloud formation, aligning with observational data.

Contribution

It introduces detailed simulations linking ISM phases to H2 level populations, providing new insights into molecular cloud formation processes.

Findings

H2 rotational level populations can be explained by multi-phase ISM structure

Simulations match observed H2 distributions in translucent clouds

Multi-phase ISM is crucial for understanding molecular cloud chemistry

Abstract

We performed high-resolution, 3D MHD simulations and we compared to observations of translucent molecular clouds. We show that the observed populations of rotational levels of H2 can arise as a consequence of the multi-phase structure of the ISM.