Abstract
The population of the rotational levels of vibrational and electronic ground state of interstellar H2 has been calculated; different possible excitation and de-excitation mechamisms including the ultraviolet pumping and formation and destruction of molecules have been considered. The values of temperature, density and radiation field towards ζ Oph, ɛ Per and ζ Pup have been obtained by comparing the theoretical distributions with the observations. The results indicate the presence of a high temperature low density diffuse cloud towards ζ Pup and low temperature high density clouds towards ζ Oph and ɛ Per.
The results of this work were presented at the February, 1974 meeting of the Astronomical Society of India (Joshi and Tarafdar, 1974).
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On leave from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, India
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Joshi, P., Tarafdar, S.P. Population of excited rotational levels of interstellar H2 . Astrophys Space Sci 36, 281–289 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00645254
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00645254