Ionized gas in the Scutum spiral arm as traced in [N II] and [C II]

Abstract

Determining the properties of the warm ionized medium (WIM) at the leading edge of spiral arms is important for understanding its dynamics and cloud formation. The inner edge of the Scutum arm tangency is a unique location in which to disentangle the WIM from other components. We use high spectral resolution [C II] 158 micron and [N II] 205 micron fine structure line observations taken with the upGREAT and GREAT instruments on SOFIA, along with auxiliary HI and 13CO observations. The observations were in and out of the Galactic plane along 18 lines of sight between longitude 30deg and 32deg. We detect strong [N II] emission throughout the Scutum tangency. At VLSR = 110 to 125 km/s, where there is little, if any, 13CO, we could disentangle the [N II] and [C II] emission that arises from the WIM at the inner edge. We find an average electron density, <n(e)> about 0.9 cm{-3} in the plane, and about 0.4 cm{-3} above the plane. For VLSR < 110 km/s there is [N II] emission tracing highly ionized gas throughout the arm's molecular layer. This ionized gas has a high density, n(e) ~ 30 cm{-3}, and a few percent filling factor. Thus, [N II] and [C II] at the Scutum arm tangency reveal a highly ionized gas with <n(e)> about 10 to 20 times those of the interarm WIM, which is best explained by a model in which the interarm WIM is compressed as it falls into the potential well of the arm. The widespread distribution of [N II] in the molecular layers shows that high density ionized gas is distributed throughout the Scutum arm. The n(e) derived from [N II] for these molecular cloud regions are about 30 cm{-3}, and probably arise in the ionized boundary layers of clouds. This [N II] emission from the ionized boundary layers is probably the result of the shock compression of the WIM as it impacts the arm's neutral gas, but some could arise from extended HII regions.

12 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (10)

• The Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey
• The VLA Galactic Plane Survey
• Early Science with SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
• GREAT: the SOFIA high-frequency heterodyne instrument
• Kinematic Distances to Molecular Clouds identified in the Galactic Ring Survey
• The upGREAT 1.9 THz multi-pixel high resolution spectrometer for the SOFIA Observatory
• The Molecular Properties of Galactic HII Regions
• The H+ Region Contribution to [C II] 158 Micron Emission
• Origin and z-distribution of Galactic diffuse [CII] emission
• Ionized gas at the edge of the Central Molecular Zone

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• Strong excess Faraday rotation on the Inside of the Sagittarius spiral arm
• Synthetic observations of spiral arm tracers of a simulated Milky Way analog
• The Dense Warm Ionized Medium in the Inner Galaxy
• Diffuse Ionized Gas in the Anti-center of the Milky Way