Observational evidence for local vertical constraining of H i by molecular cloud complexes

Abstract

ABSTRACT A massive molecular cloud complex represents local gravitational potential that can constrain the vertical distribution of surrounding stars and gas. This pinching effect results in the local corrugation of the scale height of stars and gas which is in addition to the global corrugation of the mid-plane of the disc. For the first time, we report observational evidence for this pinching on the H i vertical structures in the Galactic region (20° < l < 40°), also called W41–W44 region. The H i vertical distribution is modelled by a double Gaussian profile that physically represents a narrow dense gas distribution confined to the mid-plane embedded in a wider diffuse H i. We find that the estimate of the H i scale height distribution of wider components shows corrugated structures at the locations of molecular complexes, as theoretically predicted in literature. While the narrow component is less affected by the pinching, we found a hint of the disc being disrupted by the active dynamics in the local environment of the complex, for example, supernova explosions. Molecular complexes of mass of several $10^6 \rm M_{\odot } $, associated with the mini-starburst region W43 and the supernova remnant W41 show the strongest evidence for the pinching; here a broad trough, with an average width of ∼400 pc and height ∼300 pc, in the disc thickness of the wider component is prominently visible. Searching for similar effect on the stars as well as in the location of other complexes in the Milky Way and other galaxies will be useful to establish this phenomenon more firmly.