Distribution and mass of diffuse and dense CO gas in the Milky Way

TL;DR

This study quantifies the distribution of diffuse and dense CO-emitting gas in the Milky Way, revealing that a substantial fraction of molecular gas is diffuse and extends beyond star-forming regions, affecting our understanding of galactic molecular gas.

Contribution

It introduces a method to distinguish diffuse and dense CO components using large-scale surveys, providing new insights into the distribution and fraction of diffuse molecular gas in the Galaxy.

Findings

Diffuse gas accounts for 25% of total molecular mass.

Diffuse component is more extended perpendicular to the Galactic plane.

Fraction of diffuse gas increases with galactocentric radius.

Abstract

Emission from carbon monoxide (CO) is ubiquitously used as a tracer of dense star forming molecular clouds. There is, however, growing evidence that a significant fraction of CO emission originates from diffuse molecular gas. Quantifying the contribution of diffuse CO-emitting gas is vital for understanding the relation between molecular gas and star formation. We examine the Galactic distribution of two CO-emitting gas components, a high column density component detected in 13CO and 12CO, and a low column density component detected in 12CO, but not in 13CO. The "diffuse" and "dense" components are identified using a combination of smoothing, masking, and erosion/dilation procedures, making use of three large-scale 12CO and 13CO surveys of the Inner and Outer Milky Way. The diffuse component, which globally represents 25 (1.5x1e8 Mo) of the total molecular gas mass (6.5x1e8 Mo), is more extended perpendicular to the Galactic plane. The fraction of diffuse gas increases from 15% at a galactocentric radius of 3 kpc to 50% at 15 kpc, and increases with decreasing surface density. In the Inner Galaxy, a yet denser component traced by CS emission represents 14% of the total molecular gas mass traced by 12CO emission. Only 14% of the molecular gas mass traced by 12CO emission is identified as part of molecular clouds in 12CO surveys by cloud identification algorithms. This study indicates that CO emission not only traces star forming clouds, but also a significant diffuse molecular ISM component.