The abundances of chemical elements and their depletion factors are essential parameters for understanding the composition of the gas and dust that are ultimately incorporated into stars and planets. Sulfur is an abundant but peculiar element in the sense that, despite being less volatile than other elements (e.g., carbon), it is not a major constituent of dust grains in diffuse interstellar clouds. Here, we determine the gas-phase carbon-to-sulfur abundance ratio, [C]/[S], and the sulfur abundance [S] in a dense star-forming cloud from new radio recombination lines (RRLs) detected with the Yebes 40m telescope - at relatively high frequencies (~40 GHz ~7 mm) and angular resolutions (down to 36'') - in the Orion Bar, a rim of the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC). We detect nine CnαRRLs (with n=51 to 59) as well as nine narrow line features separated from the Cnαlines by delta v=-8.4+/-0.3 km s^-1. Based on this velocity separation, we assign these features to sulfur RRLs, with little contribution of RRLs from the more condensable elements Mg, Si, or Fe. Sulfur RRLs lines trace the photodissociation region (PDR) of the OMC. In these predominantly neutral gas layers, up to A_V~4, the ions C+ and S+ lock in most of the C and S gas-phase reservoir. We determine a relative abundance of [C]_Ori/[S]_Ori=10.4+/-0.6 and, adopting the same [C]_Ori measured in the translucent gas toward star theta^1 Ori B, an absolute abundance of [S]_Ori=(1.4+/-0.4)x10^-5. This value is consistent with emission models of the observed sulfur RRLs if N(S+)~7x10^17 cm^-2 (beam-averaged). The [S]_Ori is the ''initial'' sulfur abundance in the OMC, before an undetermined fraction of the [S]_Ori goes into molecules and ice mantles in the cloud interior. The inferred abundance [S]_Ori matches the solar abundance, thus implying that there is little depletion of sulfur onto rocky dust grains, with D(S)=0.0+/-0.2 dex.
Sensitive spectral observations made in two frequency bands near 6.0 and 17.6 GHz are described for Orion and W51. Using frequency switching we were able to achieve a dynamic range in excess of 10,000 without fitting sinusoidal or polynomial baselines. This enabled us to detect lines as weak as T$_{A} ~1mK in these strong continuum sources. Hydrogen recombination lines with $Δn$ as high as 25 have been detected in Orion. In the Orion data, where the lines are stronger, we have also detected a systematic shift in the line center frequencies proportional to linewidth that cannot be explained by …
We present a study of the sulfur-bearing species detected in a line confusion-limited survey towards Orion KL performed with the IRAM 30m telescope in the range 80-281 GHz. The study is part of an analysis of the line survey divided into families of molecules. Our aim is to derive accurate physical conditions and molecular abundances in the different components of Orion KL from observed SO and SO2 lines. First we assumed LTE conditions obtain rotational temperatures. We then used a radiative transfer model, assuming either LVG or LTE excitation to derive column densities of these molecules in …
We detail tentative detections of low-frequency carbon radio recombination lines from within the Orion molecular cloud complex observed at 99-129 MHz. These tentative detections include one alpha transition and one beta transition over three locations and are located within the diffuse regions of dust observed in the infrared at 100umm, the Halpha emission detected in the optical, and the synchrotron radiation observed in the radio. With these observations, we are able to study the radiation mechanism transition from collisionally pumped to radiatively pumped within the HII regions of the Orio…
We perform a sensitive (line confusion limited), single-side band spectral survey towards Orion KL with the IRAM 30m telescope, covering the following frequency ranges: 80-115.5 GHz, 130-178 GHz, and 197-281 GHz. We detect more than 14 400 spectral features of which 10 040 have been identified up to date and attributed to 43 different molecules, including 148 isotopologues and lines from vibrationally excited states. In this paper, we focus on the study of OCS, HCS+, H2CS, CS, CCS, C3S, and their isotopologues. In addition, we map the OCS J=18-17 line and complete complementary observations of…
We present an observational study of the sulfur (S)-bearing species towards Orion KL at 1.3 mm by combining ALMA and IRAM-30\,m single-dish data. At a linear resolution of $\sim$800 au and a velocity resolution of 1 $\mathrm{km\, s^{-1}\, }$, we have identified 79 molecular lines from 6 S-bearing species. In these S-bearing species, we found a clear dichotomy between carbon-sulfur compounds and carbon-free S-bearing species in various characteristics, e.g., line profiles, spatial morphology, and molecular abundances with respect to $\rm H_2$. Lines from the carbon-sulfur compounds (i.e., OCS, …
Gas phase Elemental abundances in molecular CloudS (GEMS) is an IRAM 30m large program aimed at determining the elemental abundances of carbon (C), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S) in a selected set of prototypical star-forming filaments. In particular, the elemental abundance of S remains uncertain by several orders of magnitude and its determination is one of the most challenging goals of this program. We have carried out an extensive chemical modeling of the fractional abundances of CO, HCO$^+$, HCN, HNC, CS, SO, H$_2$S, OCS, and HCS$^+$ to determine the sulfur depletion toward the …
Dielectronic recombination (DR) is the dominant recombination process for most heavy elements in photoionized clouds. Accurate DR rates for a species can be predicted when the positions of autoionizing states are known. Unfortunately such data are not available for most third and higher-row elements. This introduces an uncertainty that is especially acute for photoionized clouds, where the low temperatures mean that DR occurs energetically through very low-lying autoionizing states. This paper discusses S$^{2+} \rightarrow$ S$^+$ DR, the process that is largely responsible for establishing the…
Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), CSIC-INTA（西班牙天体生物学中心（CAB），西班牙国家航空航天技术研究所与西班牙高等科学研究委员会联合）；Universidad Complutense de Madrid（马德里康普顿斯大学）；Astrophysik/I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln（科隆大学第一物理研究所天体物理学部）；Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (ICE), CSIC（空间科学研究所，西班牙高等科学研究委员会）；Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC)（加泰罗尼亚太空研究所）；Department of Astronomy, University of Florida（佛罗里达大学天文系）
Hydride molecules lie at the base of interstellar chemistry, but the synthesis of sulfuretted hydrides is poorly understood. Motivated by new observations of the Orion Bar PDR - 1'' resolution ALMA images of SH+; IRAM 30m detections of H2S, H2S34, and H2S33; H3S+ (upper limits); and SOFIA observations of SH - we perform a systematic study of the chemistry of S-bearing hydrides. We determine their column densities using coupled excitation, radiative transfer as well as chemical formation and destruction models. We revise some of the key gas-phase reactions that lead to their chemical synthesis.…
Multiline observations of hydrogen, helium, and carbon radio-recombination lines toward Orion A: A detailed dynamical study and direct determination of physical conditions
A significant fraction of the molecular gas in star-forming regions is irradiated by stellar UV photons. In these environments, the electron density (n_e) plays a critical role in the gas dynamics, chemistry, and collisional excitation of certain molecules. We determine n_e in the prototypical strongly irradiated photodissociation region (PDR), the Orion Bar, from the detection of new millimeter-wave carbon recombination lines (mmCRLs) and existing far-IR [13CII] hyperfine line observations. We detect 12 mmCRLs (including alpha, beta, and gamma transitions) observed with the IRAM 30m telescope…
Context. The combined use of carbon radio recombination lines (CRRLs) and the 158 $μ$m-[CII] line is a powerful tool for the study of the energetics and physical conditions (e.g., temperature and density) of photodissociation regions (PDRs). However, there are few observational studies that exploit this synergy. Aims. Here we explore the relation between CRRLs and the 158 $μ$m-[CII] line in light of new observations and models. Methods. We present new and existing observations of CRRLs in the frequency range 0.15--230 GHz with ALMA, VLA, the GBT, Effelsberg 100m, and LOFAR towards Orion~A (M42…
Sulfur abundances derived from optical emission line measurements and ionization correction factors in planetary nebulae are systematically lower than expected for the objects' metallicities. We have carefully considered a large range of explanations for this "sulfur anomaly", including: (1) correlations between the size of the sulfur deficit and numerous nebular and central star properties; (2) ionization correction factors which under-correct for unobserved ions; (3) effects of dielectronic recombination on the sulfur ionization balance; (4) sequestering of S into dust and/or molecules; and …
We re-examine the recombination/collisional emission line (RL/CEL) nebular abundance discrepancy problem in the light of recent high-quality abundance determinations in young stars in the Orion star-forming region. We re-evaluate the CEL and RL abundances of several elements in the Orion nebula and estimate the associated uncertainties, taking into account the uncertainties in the ionization correction factors for unseen ions. We estimate the amount of oxygen trapped in dust grains for several scenarios of dust formation. We compare the resulting gas+dust nebular abundances with the stellar ab…
We critically analyze the Bell et al. findings on "anomalous" widths of high-order Hydrogen radio recombination lines in the Orion Nebula at 6 GHz. We review their method of modified frequency switching and show that the way this method is used for large Δn is not optimal and can lead to misinterpretation of measured spectral line parameters. Using a model of the Orion Nebula, conventional broadening theory and Monte Carlo simulation, we determine a transition-zone n = 224, ..., 241 (Δn = 11, ..., 14), where measurement errors grow quickly with n and become comparable with the measurement valu…
Compared to their centimeter-wavelength counterparts, millimeter recombination lines (RLs) are intrinsically brighter and are free of pressure broadening. We report observations of RLs (H30alpha at 231.9 GHz, H53alpha at 42.9 GHz) and the millimeter and centimeter continuum toward the Becklin-Neugebauer (BN) object in Orion, obtained from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Science Verification archive and the Very Large Array (VLA). The RL emission appears to be arising from the slowly-moving, dense (Ne=8.4x10^6 cm^-3) base of the ionized envelope around BN. This ionized g…
Optical integral field spectroscopy of the archetype protoplanetary disk LV2 in the Orion Nebula is presented, taken with the VLT FLAMES/Argus fibre array. The detection of recombination lines of CII and OII from this class of objects is reported, and the lines are utilized as abundance diagnostics. The study is complemented with the analysis of HST Faint Object Spectrograph ultraviolet and optical spectra of the target contained within the Argus field of view. By subtracting the local nebula background the intrinsic spectrum of the proplyd is obtained and its elemental composition is derived …
On-the-fly mapping of cm-wave spectral lines has been implemented at the the Tidbinbilla 70-m radio antenna. We describe the implementation and data reduction procedure and present new H92$α$ radio recombination line maps towards Orion A and Sagittarius A. Comparison of the Orion~A map to previous observations suggests that the lines arise largely from gas with electron density of 100--200\,cm$^{-3}$. On-the-fly mapping is very efficient at generating large maps of bright lines (such as radio recombination lines), but will still yield strong efficiency gains for smaller maps of fainter lines, …
We study several molecules that could help in the solution of the missing sulfur problem in dense clouds and circumstellar regions, as well as in the clarification of the sulfur chemistry in comets. These sulfur molecules are: the trimer (CH2S)3 and the tetramer (CH2S)4 of thioformaldehyde, pentathian S5CH2, hexathiepan S6CH2, thiirane C2H4S, trisulfane HSSSH, and thioacetone (CH3)2CS. Infrared spectra of these species are calculated using density functional theory methods. The majority of calculated bands belong to the mid-infrared, with some of them occurring in the near and far-infrared reg…
We present integral field spectroscopy of two selected zones in the Orion Nebula obtained with the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrophotometer (PMAS), covering the optical spectral range from 3500 to 7200 A and with a spatial resolution of 1". The observed zones are located on the prominent Bright Bar and on the brightest area at the northeast of the Orion South cloud, both containing remarkable ionization fronts. We obtain maps of emission line fluxes and ratios, electron density and temperatures, and chemical abundances. We study the ionization structure and morphology of both fields, which ion…
We present chemical implications arising from spectral models fit to the Herschel/HIFI spectral survey toward the Orion Kleinmann-Low nebula (Orion KL). We focus our discussion on the eight complex organics detected within the HIFI survey utilizing a novel technique to identify those molecules emitting in the hottest gas. In particular, we find the complex nitrogen bearing species CH$_{3}$CN, C$_{2}$H$_{3}$CN, C$_{2}$H$_{5}$CN, and NH$_{2}$CHO systematically trace hotter gas than the oxygen bearing organics CH$_{3}$OH, C$_{2}$H$_{5}$OH, CH$_{3}$OCH$_{3}$, and CH$_{3}$OCHO, which do not contain…
The 229 GHz (lambda 1.3mm) radio emission from Orion-KL was mapped with up to 0.14" angular resolution with CARMA, allowing measurements of the flux densities of Source I ('SrcI') and the Becklin-Neugebauer Object (BN), the 2 most massive stars in this region. We find integrated flux densities of 310 +/- 45 mJy for SrcI and 240 +/- 35 mJy for BN. SrcI is optically thick even at 229 GHz. No trace of the H30alpha recombination line is seen in its spectrum, although the v_2=1, 5(5,0)-6(4,3) transition of H2O, 3450 K above the ground state, is prominent. SrcI is elongated at position angle 140 deg…
The formation of hydrides by gas-phase reactions between H2 and a heavy element atom is a very selective process. Reactions with ground-state neutral carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur atoms are very endoergic and have high energy barriers because the H2 molecule has to be fragmented before a hydride bond is formed. In cold interstellar clouds, these barriers exclude the formation of CH, OH, NH, and SH radicals through hydrogen abstraction reactions. Here we study a very energetically unfavorable process, the reaction of N(4S) atoms with H2 molecules. We calculated the reaction rate coeffici…
Resolving dense photodissociation regions: the structure of photochemical fronts in three-dimensional gas distributions
Faculty of Physics, University of Duisburg-Essen（杜伊斯堡-埃森大学物理学院）；Research Center for Computational Earth and Space Science, Zhejiang Lab（浙江实验室计算地球与空间科学研究中心）
We report the first detection of a Galactic source of OH+ line emission: the Orion Bar, a bright nearby photon-dominated region. Line emission is detected over ~1' (0.12 pc), tracing the Bar itself as well as the Southern tip of the Orion Ridge. The line width of ~4 km/s suggests an origin of the OH+ emission close to the PDR surface, at a depth of A_V ~0.3-0.5 into the cloud where most hydrogen is in atomic form. Steady-state collisional and radiative excitation models require unrealistically high OH+ column densities to match the observed line intensity, indicating that the formation of OH+ …
Photoevaporating protoplanetary discs (proplyds) in the vicinity of hot massive stars, such as those found in Orion, are important objects of study for the fields of star formation, early disc evolution, planetary formation, and H II region astrophysics. Their element abundances are largely unknown, unlike those of the main-sequence stars or the host Orion nebula. We present a spectroscopic analysis of the Orion proplyd HST 10, based on integral field observations with the Very Large Telescope/FLAMES fibre array with 0.31" x 0.31" spatial pixels. The proplyd and its vicinity are imaged in a va…
Orion Source I (`SrcI') is the protostar at the center of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula. ALMA observations of SrcI with 0.2" angular resolution were made at 350 and 660 GHz to search for the H26alpha and H21alpha hydrogen recombination lines and to measure the continuum flux densities. The recombination lines were not detected, ruling out the possibility that SrcI is a hypercompact HII region. The deconvolved size of the continuum source is approximately 0.23 x 0.07" (100 x 30 AU); it is interpreted as a disk viewed almost edge-on. Optically thick thermal emission from ~500 K dust is the most plaus…
At intermediate to high densities, electron (de-)excitation collisions are the dominant process for populating or depopulating high Rydberg states. In particular, the accurate knowledge of the energy changing ($n$-changing) collisional rates is determinant for predicting the radio recombination spectra of gaseous nebula. The different datasets present in the literature come either from impact parameter calculations or semi-empirical fits and the rate coefficients agree within a factor of two. We show in this paper that these uncertainties cause errors lower than 5% in the emission of radio rec…
Problems where impact broadened radio recombination lines appeared narrower than predicted first showed up ~40 years ago at frequencies below ~3 GHz. But it was soon found that the observations could be explained by throwing out the uniform density models and replacing them with variable density ones. However, this problem re-appeared recently when a mysterious line narrowing above quantum numbers of (n,Δn) = (202,8) was reported from sensitive observations of Orion and W51 near 6 GHz. Here it is demonstrated that the narrowing is unlikely to be caused by the data processing technique and ther…
We have conducted a line survey towards Orion KL using the Q-band receiver of Tianma 65 m radio telescope (TMRT), covering 34.8--50 GHz with a velocity resolution between 0.79 km s$^{-1}$ and 0.55 km s$^{-1}$ respectively. The observations reach a sensitivity on the level of 1-8 mK, proving that the TMRT is sensitive for conducting deep line surveys. In total, 597 Gaussian features are extracted. Among them, 177 radio recombination lines (RRLs) are identified, including 126, 40 and 11 RRLs of hydrogen, helium and carbon, with a maximum $Δn$ of 16, 7, and 3, respectively. The carbon RRLs are co…
We re-examine the well-known discrepancy between ionic abundances determined via the analysis of recombination lines (RLs) and collisionally excited lines (CELs). We show that abundance variations can be mimicked in a {\it chemically homogeneous} medium by the presence of dense X-ray irradiated regions which present different ionisation and temperature structures from those of the more diffuse medium they are embedded in, which is predominantly ionised by extreme-ultraviolet radiation. The presence of X-ray ionised dense clumps or filaments also naturally explains the lower temperatures often …
We present a long-slit spectroscopic analysis of Herbig-Haro 202 and the surrounding gas of the Orion Nebula using data from the Very Large Telescope. Given the characteristics of the Orion Nebula, it is the ideal object to study the mechanisms that play a role in the evolution of H II regions, notably dust destruction by interstellar shocks, which is a poorly understood subject. The use of long-slit allowed us to determine the spatial variation in its physical conditions and chemical abundances observing a broad area of the Orion Nebula; our results are consistent with those from previous stu…
Orion KL is one of the most frequently observed sources in the Galaxy, and the site where many molecular species have been discovered for the first time. With the availability of powerful wideband backends, it is nowadays possible to complete spectral surveys in the entire mm-range to obtain a spectroscopically unbiased chemical picture of the region. In this paper we present a sensitive spectral survey of Orion KL, made with one of the 34m antennas of the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, Spain. The spectral range surveyed is from 41.5 to 50 GHz, with a frequency…
We present results from integral field spectroscopy with PMAS. The observed field contains: five protoplanetary discs (also known as proplyds), the high-velocity jet HH 514 and a bowshock. Spatial distribution maps are obtained for different emission line fluxes, the c(Hβ) coefficient, electron densities and temperatures, ionic abundances of different ions from collisionally excited lines (CELs), C2+ and O2+ abundances from recombination lines (RLs) and the abundance discrepancy factor of O2+, ADF(O2+). We find that collisional de-excitation has a major influence on the line fluxes in the prop…
We analyze the physical conditions, chemical composition and other properties of the photoionized Herbig-Haro object HH~204 through Very Large Telescope (VLT) echelle spectroscopy and Hubble Space Telescope (\textit{HST}) imaging. We kinematically isolate the high-velocity emission of HH~204 from the emission of the background nebula and study the sub-arcsecond distribution of physical conditions and ionic abundances across the HH object. We find that low and intermediate-ionization emission arises exclusively from gas at photoionization equilibrium temperatures, whereas the weak high-ionizati…
We use the Low Frequency Array to perform a systematic high spectral resolution investigation of the low-frequency 33-78 MHz spectrum along the line of sight to Cassiopeia A. We complement this with a 304-386 MHz Westerbork Synthesis Radio telescope observation. In this first paper we focus on the carbon radio recombination lines. We detect Cn$α$ lines at -47 and -38 km s$^{-1}$ in absorption for quantum numbers n=438-584 and in emission for n=257-278 with high signal to noise. These lines are associated with cold clouds in the Perseus spiral arm component. Hn$α$ lines are detected in emission…
We present images of C110$α$ and H110$α$ radio recombination line (RRL) emission at 4.8 GHz and images of H166$α$, C166$α$ and X166$α$ RRL emission at 1.4 GHz, observed toward the starforming region NGC 2024. The 1.4 GHz image with angular resolution $\sim$ 70\arcsec\ is obtained using VLA data. The 4.8 GHz image with angular resolution $\sim$ 17\arcsec\ is obtained by combining VLA and GBT data. The similarity of the LSR velocity (10.3 \kms\) of the C110$α$ line to that of lines observed from molecular material located at the far side of the \HII\ region suggests that the photo dissociation r…
Orion KL has served as a benchmark for spectral line searches throughout the (sub)millimeter regime. The main goal is to systematically study spectral characteristics of Orion KL in the 1.3 cm band. We carried out a spectral line survey (17.9 GHz to 26.2 GHz) with the Effelsberg-100 m telescope towards Orion KL. We find 261 spectral lines, yielding an average line density of about 32 spectral features per GHz above 3$σ$. The identified lines include 164 radio recombination lines (RRLs) and 97 molecular lines. A total of 23 molecular transitions from species known to exist in Orion KL are detec…
We present the first 7.5'x11.5' velocity-resolved map of the [CII]158um line toward the Orion molecular cloud-1 (OMC-1) taken with the Herschel/HIFI instrument. In combination with far-infrared (FIR) photometric images and velocity-resolved maps of the H41alpha hydrogen recombination and CO J=2-1 lines, this data set provides an unprecedented view of the intricate small-scale kinematics of the ionized/PDR/molecular gas interfaces and of the radiative feedback from massive stars. The main contribution to the [CII] luminosity (~85%) is from the extended, FUV-illuminated face of the cloud G_0>500…
We present results of deep echelle spectrophotometry of the brightest knot of the HH202 in the Orion Nebula --HH202-S-- using the ultraviolet Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES). The high spectral resolution has permitted to separate the component associated with the ambient gas from that associated with the gas flow. We derive electron densities and temperatures for both components, as well as the chemical abundances of several ions and elements from collisionally excited lines, including the first determinations of Ca^{+} and Cr^{+} abundances in the Orion Nebula. We also calculate the He^{+}…
We present results of long-slit spectroscopy in several slit positions that cover different morphological structures of the central parts of three bright Galactic HII regions: M8, M17 and NGC7635. We study the spatial distributions of a large number of nebular parameters such as the extinction coefficient, line fluxes, physical conditions and ionic abundances at the maximum spatial resolution attainable with our instrumentation. Particularly, our goal is to study the behaviour of the abundance discrepancy factor of O^{2+}, ADF(O^{2+}), defined as the logarithmic difference of the O^{2+} abunda…
Early B-type stars are invaluable indicators for elemental abundances of their birth environments. In contrast to the surrounding neutral interstellar matter (ISM) and HII regions their chemical composition is unaffected by depletion onto dust grains and by the derivation of different abundances from recombination and collisional lines. In combination with ISM or nebular gas-phase abundances they facilitate the dust-phase composition to be constrained. Precise abundances of C, N, Mg, Ne, Fe in early B-type stars in the Orion star-forming region are determined in order to: a) review previous de…
Context. The [CII] 158micron far-infrared fine-structure line is one of the dominant cooling lines of the star-forming interstellar medium (ISM). Hence [CII] emission originates in and thus can be used to trace a range of ISM processes. Velocity-resolved large-scale mapping of [CII] in star-forming regions provides a unique perspective of the kinematics of these regions and their interactions with the exciting source of radiation. Aims. We explore the scientific applications of large-scale mapping of velocity-resolved [CII] observations. With the [CII] observations, we investigate the effect o…
This work presents a Bayesian algorithm to fit the recombination and collisionally excited line spectra of gas photoionized by clusters of young stars. The current model consists in fourteen dimensions: two electron temperatures, one electron density, the extinction coefficient, the optical depth on the $HeI$ recombination lines and nine ionic species. The results are in very good agreement with those previously published using the traditional methodology. The probabilistic programming library PyMC3 was chosen to explore the parameter space via a NUTs sampler. These machine learning tools prov…
After becoming ionized, low-density astrophysical plasmas will begin a process of slow recombination. Models for this still have significant uncertainties. The recombination cannot normally be observed in isolation, because the ionization follows the evolutionary time scale of the ionizing source. Laboratory experiments are unable to reach the appropriate conditions because of the required very long time scales. The extended nebula around the very late helium flash (VLTP) star V4334 Sgr provides a unique laboratory for this kind of study. The sudden loss of the ionizing UV radiation after the …
We report the first detection of radio recombination lines (RRLs) of ions heavier than helium. In a highly sensitive multi-band (12--50 GHz) line survey toward Orion KL with the TianMa 65-m Radio Telescope (TMRT), we successfully detected more than fifteen unblended $α$ lines of RRLs of singly ionized species (XII) recombined from XIII. The Ka-band (35--50 GHz) spectrum also shows tentative signals of $β$ lines of ions. The detected lines can be successfully crossmatched with the the rest frequencies of RRLs of CII and/or OII. This finding greatly expands the connotation of ion RRLs, since bef…
We present the first detection of carbon radio recombination line absorption along the line of sight to Cygnus A. The observations were carried out with the LOw Frequency ARray in the 33 to 57 MHz range. These low frequency radio observations provide us with a new line of sight to study the diffuse, neutral gas in our Galaxy. To our knowledge this is the first time that foreground Milky Way recombination line absorption has been observed against a bright extragalactic background source. By stacking 48 carbon $α$ lines in the observed frequency range we detect carbon absorption with a signal-to…
The electron density ($n_{e^{-}}$) plays an important role in setting the chemistry and physics of the interstellar medium. However, measurements of $n_{e^{-}}$ in neutral clouds have been directly obtained only toward a few lines of sight or they rely on indirect determinations. We use carbon radio recombination lines and the far-infrared lines of C$^{+}$ to directly measure $n_{e^{-}}$ and the gas temperature in the envelope of the integral shaped filament (ISF) in the Orion A molecular cloud. We observed the C$102α$ and C$109α$ carbon radio recombination lines (CRRLs) using the Effelsberg 1…
Although they are only minor constituents of the interstellar medium, halogen-containing molecules are of special interest because of their unique thermochemistry. Here, we present a theoretical study of the chemistry of interstellar molecules containing the halogen elements chlorine and fluorine. We have modeled both diffuse and dense molecular clouds, making use of updated estimates for the rates of several key chemical processes. We present predictions for the abundances of the three halogen molecules that have been detected to date in the interstellar medium: HF, CF+ and HCl. As in our pre…
We present spatially resolved ($\sim$50 pc) imaging of molecular gas species in the central kiloparsec of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253, based on observations taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). A total of 50 molecular lines are detected over a 13 GHz bandwidth imaged in the 3 mm band. Unambiguous identifications are assigned for 27 lines. Based on the measured high CO/C$^{17}$O isotopic line ratio ($\gtrsim$350), we show that $^{12}$CO(1-0) has moderate optical depths. A comparison of the HCN and HCO$^{+}$ with their $^{13}$C-substituted isotopologues sho…
