Line emission from clumpy photodissociation regions

Abstract

A theoretical parameter study of dense photodissociation regions is presented. It is found that when the gas density is sufficiently high relative to the FUV flux, self-shielding of the molecules can move the C(+)/CO and H/H2 atomic-molecular transitions close to the surfaces of the molecular cloud, where they can feel the full effect of heating by the FUV radiation field. For n of 100,000/cu cm, collisional deexcitation of the FUV-pumped H2 can move the lower levels toward the LTE, producing line ratio resembling those of shocked regions for these low-v levels, while the high-v level line ratios retain a 'fluorescent' value. Appreciable emission in high-J transitions of CO originates in this warm molecular gas. Comparison with observations suggests that a small volume filling factor of high density clumps embedded within a moderate density interclump medium are a common phenomenon in photodissociation regions.