Abstract
The homogenization of inhomogeneities in the elemental composition of the interstellar medium due to stellar evolution and weak mixing are inevitably related to the action of shocks. This paper considers the influence of variations in the elemental composition on the thermal and ionizational evolution of a collisional gas with the solar metallicity that is cooled behind a shock front with a velocity of 50–120 km/s. The intensities of lines of heavy elements in plasma cooling behind a shock front depend not only on variations in the elemental composition, but also on the shock velocity, due to the different values of the critical density for the transition to the equilibrium level populations in atoms and ions of heavy elements. This circumstance can be used to determine the elemental composition of cool and warm gas of the interstellar medium, as well as the thermal history of the gas.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. A. de Avillez and M.-M. Mac Low, Astrophys. J. 581, 1047 (2002).
E. A. Karitskaya, N. G. Bochkarev, V. V. Shimansky, and G. A. Galazutdinov, ASP Conf. Ser. 445, 335 (2011).
N. G. Bochkarev, E. A. Karitskaya, V. V. Shimansky, and G. A. Galazutdinov, Astron. Nachr. 334, 835 (2013).
D. Kunth and W. L. W. Sargent, Astrophys. J. 300, 496 (1986).
B. Edvardsson, J. Andersen, B. Gustafsson, D. L. Lambert, P. E. Nissen, and J. Tomkin, Astron. Astrophys. 275, 101 (1993).
R. E. Luck, V. V. Kovtyukh, and S. M. Andrievsky, Astrophys. J. 132, 902 (2006).
E. O. Vasiliev and Yu. A. Shchekinov, Astron. Rep. 60, 924 (2016).
A. Ferrara, M. Pettini, and Yu. A. Shchekinov, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 319, 539 (2000).
S. Yu. Dedikov and Yu. A. Shchekinov, Astron. Rep. 48, 9 (2004).
S. Yu. Dedikov, Yu. A. Shchekinov, and E. O. Vasiliev, Odessa Astron. Publ. 21, 29 (2008).
E. O. Vasiliev, S. Yu. Dedikov, and Yu. A. Shchekinov, Astrophys. Bull. 64, 317 (2009).
B. G. Elmegreen and J. Scalo, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 42, 211 (2004).
M. G. Allen, B. A. Groves, M. A. Dopita, R. S. Sutherland, and L. J. Kewley, Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 178, 20 (2008).
G. J. Ferland, K. T. Korista, D. A. Verner, J. W. Ferguson, J. B. Kingdon, and E. M. Verner, Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacif. 110, 761 (1998).
E. O. Vasiliev, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 414, 3145 (2011).
E. O. Vasiliev, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 431, 638 (2013).
M. Asplund, N. Grevesse, and A. J. Sauval, in Proceedings of the 336th ASP Conference on Cosmic Abundances as Records of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis, Ed. by T. G. Barnes III and F. N. Bash, ASP Conf. Ser. 336, 25 (2005).
J. J. Drake and P. Testa, Nature 436, 525 (2005).
Yu. I. Izotov and T. X. Thuan, Astrophys. J. 500, 188 (1998).
E. O. Vasiliev, S. K. Sethi, and B. B. Nath, Astrophys. J. 719, 1343 (2010).
E. O. Vasiliev, Mon. Not._R. Astron. Soc. 419, 3641 (2012).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Additional information
Original Russian Text © E.O. Vasiliev, Yu.A. Shchekinov, 2017, published in Astronomicheskii Zhurnal, 2017, Vol. 94, No. 4, pp. 333–337.
Based on a talk presented at the international conference “All-Wave Astronomy. Shklovskii-100” in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birthday of I. S. Shklovskii (Moscow, Russia, June 20–22, 2016.). Printed by recommendation of the Scientific Organizing Committee of the conference.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vasiliev, E.O., Shchekinov, Y.A. The influence of variations of the elemental composition on the thermal properties of gas behind shock fronts. Astron. Rep. 61, 342–346 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063772917040175
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063772917040175