Abstract

A variety of astronomical environments contain clouds irradiated by a combination of isotropic and beamed radiation fields. For example, molecular clouds may be irradiated by the isotropic cosmic microwave background, as well as by a nearby active galactic nucleus. These radiation fields excite atoms and molecules and produce emission in different ways. We revisit the escape probability theorem and derive a novel expression that accounts for the presence of external radiation fields. We show that when the field is isotropic the escape probability is reduced relative to that in the absence of external radiation. This is in agreement with previous results obtained under ad hoc assumptions or with the two-level system, but can be applied to complex many-level models of atoms or molecules. This treatment is in the development version of the spectral synthesis code CLOUDY. We examine the spectrum of a Spitzer cloud embedded in the local interstellar radiation field and show that about 60% of its emission lines are sensitive to background subtraction. We argue that this geometric approach could provide an additional tool toward understanding the complex radiation fields of starburst galaxies.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2-2013

Notes/Citation Information

Published in The Astrophysical Journal, v. 779, no. 2, 122, p. 1-11.

© 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

The copyright holder has granted permission for posting the article here.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/779/2/122

Funding Information

G.J.F. acknowledges support by NSF (1108928 and 1109061), NASA (10-ATP10-0053, 10-ADAP10-0073, and NNX12AH73G), and STScI (HST-AR-12125.01, GO-12560, and HST-GO-12309). P.v.H. acknowledges support from the Belgian Science Policy office through the ESA PRODEX program. 

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