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- Title
DIFFUSE IONIZED GAS IN SPIRAL GALAXIES AND THE DISK-HALO INTERACTION.
- Authors
Reynolds, R. J.; Haffner, L. M.; Madsen, G. J.; Wood, K.; Hill, A. S.
- Abstract
Thick layers of warm, low density ionized hydrogen (I. e., the warm ionized medium or WIM) in spiral galaxies provide direct evidence for an interaction between the disk and halo. The wide-spread ionization implies that a significant fraction of the Lyman continuum photons from O stars, produced primarily in isolated star forming regions near the midplane and often surrounded by opaque clouds of neutral hydrogen, is somehow able to propagate large distances through the disk and into the halo. Moreover, even though O stars are the source of the ionization, the temperature and ionization state of the WIM differ significantly from what is observed in the classical O star H n regions. Therefore, the existence of the WIM and observations of its properties provide information about the structure of the interstellax medium and the transport of energy away from the midplane as well as place significant constraints on models.
- Subjects
IONIZED gases; SPIRAL galaxies; GALACTIC halos; HYDROGEN ions; IONIZATION (Atomic physics); O stars; INTERSTELLAR medium
- Publication
EAS Publications Series, 2012, Vol 56, p213
- ISSN
1633-4760
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1051/eas/1256034