Spin Temperature and Density of Cold and Warm HI in the Galactic Disk - Hidden HI -

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to determine the spin temperature and density of cold and warm HI gas in the Milky Way, revealing significant hidden HI mass in the galactic disk.

Contribution

It presents a novel least-chi-squared approach to simultaneously measure HI spin temperature and density, uncovering substantial hidden cold HI mass.

Findings

Cold HI has T_S around 100-120 K with high density.

Warm HI has T_S around 1700 K with low density.

Total HI mass inside the solar circle is 2-2.5 times higher than previous estimates.

Abstract

We present a method to determine the spin temperature $T_{\rm S}$ and volume density $n$ of HI gas simultaneously along the tangent-point circle of galactic rotation in the Milky Way by using the least-$\chi^2$ method. The best-fit $T_{\rm S}$ is shown to range either in $T_{\rm S}=100-120$ K or in $1000-3000$ K, indicating that the gas is either in cold HI phase with high density and large optical depth, or in warm HI with low density and small optical depth. Averaged values at $3\le R \le 8$ kpc are obtained to be $T_{\rm S}=106.7 \pm 16.0$ K and $n=1.53\pm 0.86$ H cm$^{-3}$ for cold HI, and $1720 \pm 1060$ K and $0.38 \pm 0.10$ H cm$^{-3}$ for warm HI, where $R=8\ |\sin \ l|$ kpc is the galacto-centric distance along the tangent-point circle. The cold HI appears in spiral arms and rings, whereas warm HI in the inter-arm regions. The cold HI is denser by a factor of $\sim 4$ than warm HI. The present analysis has revealed the hidden HI mass in cold and optically thick phase in the galactic disk. The total HI mass inside the solar circle is shown to be greater by a factor of $2 - 2.5$ than the current estimation by optically thin assumption.