Theoretical and Observational Aspects of Expanding HiShells

Abstract

We have modeled H I shells expanding into a homogeneous medium in order to explain some of their observational peculiarities. Such peculiarities include difficult-to-observe caps, the presence of stationary rings, expansion velocity determination problems, inaccurate mass measurements, and a systematic discrepancy between H I missing masses and shell masses. Velocity dispersion within the shell, in the form of either thermal or turbulent motions, has been found to be the likely major cause for the absence of observable caps and the presence of stationary rings, hence explaining the apparent lack of ring transition. We discuss different methods generally used to calculate H I shell masses and show that, if one does not take into account the varying shape of the H I background local to the shell, shell masses are likely to be underestimated by a significant factor whose value depends on the relative shell thickness and the ratio of the dispersion to the expansion velocity.