Abstract Detail

13 January, 2006 - 1:50 PM

The Dense ISM in (high redshift) Starbursts

Michael Kaufman (San Jose State University/NASA Ames)

Over the past 20 years, PDR models have developed into mature and useful tools for analyzing emission from dense and diffuse interstellar clouds illuminated by FUV radiation. The classic PDR tracers are the OI 63 micron and CII 158 micron fine-structure lines, along with the far-infrared continuum. While these tracers are useful for constraining the physical conditions in nearby individual PDRs, care must be used in applying the models to more distant regions in which both dense star forming regions and diffuse gas lie in the beam. Observations of H₂ and CO in nearby galaxies independently probe the dense gas component and provide a calibration for observations where many components lie in the beam. The implications for ALMA observations of starbursts, particularly of CII and OI in galaxies with low metallicity at high redshift, will be discussed.