Stars, Interstellar Medium and the Galaxy Commons^™

Statistical Time-Dependent Model For The Interstellar Gas, H. Gerola, Menas Kafatos, R. Mccray

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

We present models for temperature and ionization structure of low, uniform-density (n ~ 0.3 cm^-3) interstellar gas in a galactic disk which is exposed to soft X-rays from supernova outbursts occurring randomly in space and time. The structure was calculated by computing the time record of temperature and ionization at a given point by Monte Carlo simulation. The calculation yields probability distribution functions for ionized fraction x, temperature T, and their various observable moments. These time-dependent models predict a bimodal temperature distribution of the gas with structure in x, T that agrees with various observations. Cold regions in the low-density …