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Merged Ionization/Dissociation Fronts In Planetary Nebulae, William J. Henney, R. J. R. Williams, Gary J. Ferland, Gargi Shaw, C. R. O'Dell

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The hydrogen ionization and dissociation front around an ultraviolet radiation source should merge when the ratio of ionizing photon flux to gas density is sufficiently low and the spectrum is sufficiently hard. This regime is particularly relevant to the molecular knots that are commonly found in evolved planetary nebulae, such as the Helix Nebula, where traditional models of photodissociation regions have proved unable to explain the high observed luminosity in H₂ lines. In this paper we present results for the structure and steady state dynamics of such advection-dominated merged fronts, calculated using the Cloudy plasma/molecular physics code. We find …