Study of the 13CO/C18O abundance ratio towards the filamentary infrared dark cloud IRDC 34.43+0.24

TL;DR

This study investigates the 13CO/C18O abundance ratio in the IRDC 34.43+0.24 filamentary cloud, providing observational evidence of selective photodissociation influenced by FUV radiation, and highlights the importance of considering local irradiation effects in molecular gas analysis.

Contribution

It offers new observational data on the 13CO/C18O ratio in a distant IRDC affected by FUV radiation, emphasizing the impact of local irradiation on molecular abundance ratios.

Findings

Higher X values near HII regions and PDRs indicate selective photodissociation.

The observed abundance ratios vary significantly from canonical values.

FUV radiation influences molecular gas properties and abundance ratios.

Abstract

Nowadays there are several observational studies about the 13CO/C18O abundance ratio (X) towards nearby molecular clouds. These works give observational support to the C18O selective photodissociation due to the interaction between the FUV radiation and the molecular gas. It is necessary to increase the sample of molecular clouds located at different distances and affected in different ways by nearby or embedded HII regions and OB associations to study the selective photodissociation. Using 12CO, 13CO, and C18O J=1-0 data obtained from the FOREST Survey, we analyze the filamentary infrared dark cloud IRDC34.43+0.24 located at the distance of about 3.9 kpc. This IRDC is related to several HII regions and YSOs. Assuming LTE we obtain: 0.8x10^16<N(13CO)<4x10^17cm^-2, 0.6x10^15<N(C18O)<4.4x10^16cm^-2, and 3<X<30 across the whole IRDC. Larger values of X were found towards portions of the cloud related to the HII regions associated with the N61 and N62 bubbles and with the photodissociation regions (PDRs), precisely the regions in which FUV photons are strongly interacting with the molecular gas. Our result represents an observational support to the C18O selectively photodissociation phenomenon occurring in a quite distant filamentary IRDC. Additionally, based on IR data from the Hi-GAL survey, the FUV radiation field was estimated in Habing units, and the dust temperature and N(H2) distribution was studied. Using the average of N(H2), values in close agreement with the canonical abundance ratios [H2]/[13CO] and [H2]/[C18O] were derived. However, the obtained ranges in the abundance ratios show that if an accurate analysis of the molecular gas is required, the use of the canonical values may introduce some bias. Thus, it is important to consider how the gas is irradiated by the far ultraviolet photons across the molecular cloud. The analysis of X is a good tool to perform that.