Calculating the Excitation Temperature for H_2CO Absorption Lines in Molecular Clouds

The excitation temperature T_(ex)for molecular emission and absorption lines is an essential parameter for interpreting the molecular environment.This temperature can be obtained by observing multiple molecular transitions or hyperfine structures of a single transition,but it remains unknown for a single transition without hyperfine structure lines.Earlier H_(2)CO absorption experiments for a single transition without hyperfine structures adopted a constant value of T_(ex),which is not correct for molecular regions with active star formation and H II regions.For H_(2)CO,two equations with two unknowns may be used to determine the excitation temperature T_(ex)and the optical depthτ,if other parameters can be determined from measurements.Published observational data of the4.83 GHz(λ=6 cm)H_(2)CO(1_(10)-1_(11))absorption line for three star formation regions,W40,M17 and DR17,have been used to verify this method.The distributions of T_(ex)in these sources are in good agreement with the contours of the H110αemission of the H II regions in M17 and DR17 and with the H_(2)CO(1_(10)-1_(11))absorption in W40.The distributions of T_(ex)in the three sources indicate that there can be significant variation in the excitation temperature across star formation and H II regions and that the use of a fixed(low)value results in misinterpretation.

Comparison of NH_(3) and ^(12)CO,^(13)CO,C^(18)O Molecular Lines in the Aquila Rift Cloud Complex

The observations of the Aquila Rift cloud complex at 23.708 and 115.271 GHz made using the Nanshan 26 m radio telescope and the 13.7 m millimeter-wavelength telescope are presented.We find that the CO(1-0)gas distribution is similar to the NH_(3)gas distribution in the Aquila Rift cloud complex.In some diffusion regions characterized by CO,we identified several dense clumps based on the distribution of detected ammonia molecular emission.Through the comparison of spectral line parameters for NH_(3),^(13)CO,and C^(18)O,our study reveals that the line center velocities of the NH_(3),^(13)CO,and C^(18)O lines are comparable and positively correlated,indicating that they originate from the same emission region.No significant correlation was identified for other parameters,including integrated intensity,line widths,main beam brightness temperature,as well as the column densities of NH_(3),^(13)CO,and C^(18)O.The absolute difference in line-center velocities between the^(13)CO and NH_(3)lines is less than both the average line width of NH_(3)and that of^(13)CO.This suggests that there are no significant movements of NH_(3)clumps in relation to their envelopes.The velocity deviation is likely due to turbulent activity within the clumps.