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This content will become publicly available on September 9, 2026

Title: The Resolved Structure of a Low-metallicity Photodissociation Region
Abstract Photodissociation regions (PDRs) are key to understanding the feedback processes that shape interstellar matter in galaxies. One important type of PDR is the interface between Hiiregions and molecular clouds, where far-ultraviolet radiation from massive stars heats gas and dissociates molecules. Photochemical models predict that as metallicity decreases, the C/CO transition occurs at greater depths in the PDR compared to the H/H2transition, increasing the extent of CO-dark H2gas in low-metallicity environments. This prediction has been difficult to test outside the Milky Way due to the lack of high-spatial-resolution observations tracing H2and CO. This study examines a low-metallicity PDR in the N13 region of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), where we spatially resolve the ionization front, the H2dissociation front, and the C/CO transition using12COJ= 2−1, 3−2, and [CI] 1–0 observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and near-infrared spectroscopy of the H22.12 1–0 S(1) vibrational line, and H recombination lines from the James Webb Space Telescope. Our analysis shows that the separation between the H/H2and C/CO boundaries is approximately 0.043 ± 0.013(stat.) ± 0.0036(syst.) pc (equivalent to 0 . 146 ± 0 . 042 ( stat. ) ± 0 . 012 ( syst. ) at the SMC’s distance of 62 kpc), defining the spatial extent of the CO-dark H2region. Compared to our plane-parallel PDR models, we find that a constant-pressure model matches the observed structure better than a constant-density one. Overall, we find that the PDR model does well at predicting the extent of the CO-dark H2layer in N13. This study represents the first resolved benchmark for low-metallicity PDRs.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2308274
PAR ID:
10651134
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
AAS Journals
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume:
990
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0004-637X
Page Range / eLocation ID:
209
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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