Thermal processes in molecular gas

Abstract

The dynamics of the cold atomic and molecular gas, on which we focus here, is strongly affected by non equilibrium heating and cooling processes. We give two different examples, in which the breaking of the thermal balance is due respectively to variations of the incident ultraviolet radiation flux, and non equilibrium abundances of H2 molecules in molecular clouds envelopes. Fluctuations of the ultraviolet radiation flux in clumpy molecular cloud envelopes result in the formation or the destruction of dense regions. Large density contrasts, greater than one order of magnitude, are easily achieved in cloud regions of moderate visual extinction. Condensation or expansion develop on quite short time scales, of the order of a few tenth of million year, and induce collective motions which can feed turbulence.Another example of the importance of out of equilibrium thermochemical processes is furnished by the study of the H — H2 transition layers in molecular clouds envelopes. They turn out to be unstable against convection-like motions, driven by the energy released by H2 photodestruction. The gas velocities involved in these motions are, again, typical of the observed turbulent velocity in clouds envelopes.