Absorption Measurement of Hydrogen Molecules in the Early Universe

Abstract

We investigate the observability of hydrogen molecules in absorption. The absorption efficiency of the hydrogen molecules become comparable with or larger than that of the dust grains in the metal-poor condition expected in the early Universe. If we can use bright infrared continuum sources behind the molecular gas clouds, the absorption measurement of the hydrogen molecules will be an important technique to explore the primordial gas clouds that are contracting into first-generation objects.

5 pages, to be published in PASJ, August 25, 2001

References in corpus (5)

• Protostellar Collapse with Various Metallicities
• The diversity of SCUBA-selected galaxies
• A massive reservoir of low-excitation molecular gas at high redshift
• Formation and Disruption of Cosmological Low Mass Objects
• Detecting the First Objects in the Mid-IR with NGST

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Molecules in galaxies
• Extinction curves expected in young galaxies
• Molecular hydrogen in damped Ly-alpha systems: clues to interstellar physics at high-redshift
• Observing H2 Emission in Forming Galaxies
• Search for high column density systems with gamma ray bursts