CO, CS, HCO, HCO+, C2H, and HCN in the diffuse interstellar medium

TL;DR

This study analyzes millimeter-wave absorption lines of various molecules in the diffuse interstellar medium across 88 sight lines, revealing widespread presence and relative abundances of molecules like HCO+, C2H, and HCN, and comparing absorption with emission data.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of molecular absorption in the diffuse ISM over a large sample, expanding understanding of molecular abundances and line characteristics.

Findings

C2H is ubiquitous with increasing N(C2H)/N(HCO+) at lower N(HCO+)

HCN is consistently detected with a stable N(HCN)/N(HCO+) ratio of 1.25

HCO+ absorption is prevalent, detected in 72 of 86 sightlines

Abstract

Context. Radio frequency molecular absorption lines appear along sight lines with AV well below 1 mag, revealing the presence of H2 in diffuse gas even when 2.6mm CO emission is absent. Aims. We discuss absorption lines of HCO+, C2H, HCN, CS, and HCO in a larger sample (88 sight lines) than was available before. Methods. We observed millimeter-wave absorption at the IRAM and ALMA interferometers over the past 30 years and gathered the results for to compare with observations of HCO+ and CO emission taken at the ARO KP12m and IRAM 30m telescopes. Results: We detected HCO+ along 72 of 86 sightlines where it was observed, C2H along 53 of 76 sightlines and HCN along 38 of 57 sightlines. C2H is ubiquitous and N(C2H)/N(HCO+) increases at smaller EB-V and smaller N(HCO+) but C2H absorption is intrinsically weaker, decreasing the number of sightlines with low column density along which it was detected.The dense-gas tracer HCN was uniformly detected down to N(H2) = 10^20 cm-2 with little change in the relative abundance N(HCN)/N(HCO+) = 1.25. HCO was detected along only 4 of 46 sight lines that were newly observed at ALMA because its lines are intrinsically weak, but HCO is ubiquitous in the interstellar medium with N(HCO)/N(HCO+) = 1/3 or N(HCO)/N(H2) = 10^-9. The line widths of HCN features are (like those of CO) narrower than those of matching features observed in HCO+, and those of C2H are broader. HCO+ emission is commonly observed at log levels -2+/-0.3 dex with respect to CO emission.