The Amount of CH Produced during CH+Synthesis in Interstellar Clouds

Abstract

A particularly useful constraint for models of CH+ formation in interstellar clouds is knowledge of the amount of CH associated with CH+ synthesis. For lines of sight with no detectable CN absorption, this column of CH can be inferred through a combined analysis of C I excitation and simplified chemical models. The approach is applied to data for two lines of sight, those toward 23 Ori and β1 Sco, for which N(CH)/N(CH+) ≤ 0.40.