Clustering the Orion B giant molecular cloud based on its molecular emission.

CONTEXT: Previous attempts at segmenting molecular line maps of molecular clouds have focused on using position-position-velocity data cubes of a single molecular line to separate the spatial components of the cloud. In contrast, wide field spectral imaging over a large spectral bandwidth in the (sub)mm domain now allows one to combine multiple molecular tracers to understand the different physical and chemical phases that constitute giant molecular clouds (GMCs). AIMS: We aim at using multiple tracers (sensitive to different physical processes and conditions) to segment a molecular cloud into physically/chemically similar regions (rather than spatially connected components), thus disentangling the different physical/chemical phases present in the cloud. METHODS: We use a machine learning clustering method, namely the Meanshift algorithm, to cluster pixels with similar molecular emission, ignoring spatial information. Clusters are defined around each maximum of the multidimensional Probability Density Function (PDF) of the line integrated intensities. Simple radiative transfer models were used to interpret the astrophysical information uncovered by the clustering analysis. RESULTS: A clustering analysis based only on the J = 1 - 0 lines of three isotopologues of CO proves suffcient to reveal distinct density/column density regimes (nH ~ 100 cm-3, ~ 500 cm-3, and > 1000 cm-3), closely related to the usual definitions of diffuse, translucent and high-column-density regions. Adding two UV-sensitive tracers, the J = 1 - 0 line of HCO+ and the N = 1 - 0 line of CN, allows us to distinguish two clearly distinct chemical regimes, characteristic of UV-illuminated and UV-shielded gas. The UV-illuminated regime shows overbright HCO+ and CN emission, which we relate to a photochemical enrichment effect. We also find a tail of high CN/HCO+ intensity ratio in UV-illuminated regions. Finer distinctions in density classes (nH ~ 7 × 103 cm-3 ~ 4 × 104 cm-3) for the densest regions are also identified, likely related to the higher critical density of the CN and HCO+ (1 - 0) lines. These distinctions are only possible because the high-density regions are spatially resolved. CONCLUSIONS: Molecules are versatile tracers of GMCs because their line intensities bear the signature of the physics and chemistry at play in the gas. The association of simultaneous multi-line, wide-field mapping and powerful machine learning methods such as the Meanshift clustering algorithm reveals how to decode the complex information available in these molecular tracers.

The most diffuse molecular gas in the galaxy.

Interstellar molecules preferentially reside in denser, cooler, optically shielded portions of the interstellar medium, but a weak residue of H2 will form via purely gas-phase processes involving H(-) even in rather bare atomic gas, the so-called warm interstellar medium where the temperature (>1000 K) and electron fraction (0.01 to 0.1) are relatively high. Along with H2, a few trace molecules will also form in this gas, partially because strongly endothermic reactions such as C(+) + H2 → CH(+) + H are energetically allowed. The observed abundance patterns of SH(+), CH(+) and OH(+) are reproduced by the warm gas chemistry, but not their overall abundances with respect to hydrogen. Even the very smallest molecular hydrogen fractions observed in the Milky Way along sightlines of low mean density are well above those that can readily be produced in the warm interstellar medium by gas-phase or grain-surface H2 formation processes. This suggests that density inhomogeneities may obscure the molecular contribution of warmer gas.

H3+ in the diffuse interstellar medium.

Three forms of solely hydrogen-bearing molecules--H2, HD and H3+--are observed in diffuse or optically transparent interstellar clouds. Although no comprehensive theory exists for the diffuse interstellar medium or its chemistry, the abundances of these species can generally be accommodated locally within the existing static equilibrium frameworks for heating/cooling, H2-formation on large grains, etc. with one modification demanded equally by observations of HD and H3+, i.e. a pervasive low-level source of H and H2 ionization ca 10 times faster than the usual cosmic ray ionization rate zetaH = 10(-17) s(-1) per free H-atom. We discuss this situation with reference to observation and time-dependent modelling of H2 and H3+ formation. While not wishing to appear ungrateful for the success of what are very simplistic notions of the interstellar medium, we point out several reasons not to feel smug. The equilibrium conditions which foster high H2 and H3+ abundances are very slow to appear and these same simple ideas of static equilibrium cannot explain any, but a few, of the simplest of the trace species, which are ubiquitously embedded in H2-bearing diffuse gases.