Inhomogeneity within Local Interstellar Clouds

TL;DR

This study analyzes high-resolution spectra of nearby stars to reveal significant inhomogeneity in temperature and turbulence within local interstellar clouds, challenging simple models and indicating complex small-scale structures.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of 100 interstellar velocity components, uncovering inhomogeneity and small-scale variations in local interstellar clouds.

Findings

Wide range of temperatures and turbulent velocities within clouds.

No correlation of properties with stellar distance or galactic position.

Evidence of a shock in the sight line to AD Leo.

Abstract

Analysis of interstellar absorption lines observed in high-resolution {\em HST} spectra of nearby stars provides temperatures, turbulent velocities, and kinetic properties of warm interstellar clouds. Previous studies identified 15 warm partially ionized clouds within about 10~pc of the Sun and measured their mean thermal and kinematic properties. A new analysis of 100 interstellar velocity components reveals a wide range of temperatures and turbulent velocities within the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) and other nearby clouds. These variations appear to be random with Gaussian distributions. We find no trends of these properties with stellar distance, angle from the Galactic Center, the main source of EUV radiation (the star $\epsilon$~CMa), the center of the LIC, or the direction of inflowing interstellar matter into the heliosphere. The spatial scale for temperature variations in the LIC is likely smaller than 5,100~au, a distance that the Sun will traverse in 1,000 years. Essentially all velocity components align with known warm clouds. We find that within 4~pc of the Sun, space is completely filled with partially ionized clouds, but at larger distances space is only partially filled with partially ionized clouds, indicating that fully ionized inter-cloud gas fills the voids. We find that the neutral hydrogen number density in the LIC and likely other warm clouds in the CLIC is about 0.10~cm$^{-3}$ rather than the 0.20~cm$^{-3}$ density that may be representative of only the immediate environment of the LIC. The 3,000--12,000~K temperature range for the gas is consistent with the predictions of theoretical models of the WNM and WIM, but the high degree of inhomogeneity within clouds argues against simple theoretical models. Finally, we find evidence for a shock in the sight line to the star AD~Leo.