# 1 Molecular Cooling

## 1 Molecular Cooling

The ultimate fate of the gas which cools in cooling flows is still unknown. A possibility is that a fraction of the gas forms cold molecular clouds . As a result of fragmentation we expect the formation of small clouds with higher density and possible production of molecules in particular $`H_2`$ and traces of $`HD`$ and $`CO`$.   
Taking into account radiative transfer effects we computed analytically in  the cooling function $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\left(T\right)`$ for the transition between the ground state and the first rotational level. This way we determined a lower limit of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.   
Meanwhile we improved this calculation by including numerically all rotational transitions which are relevant at low temperatures (i.e. up to $`J5`$).   
The following column densities are adopted for a typical small cloud (with $`n_{H_2}=10^6`$cm<sup>-3</sup>): $`N_{CO}=10^{14}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{and}N_{H_2}=2\times 10^{18}\mathrm{cm}^2`$, which corresponds to a $`CO`$ abundance: $`\eta _{CO}5\times 10^5`$. For $`HD`$ instead we assume the primordial ratio $`\eta _{HD}7\times 10^5`$.   
In Figure 1 we plotted the molecular cooling function $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\left(T\right)`$ taking into account $`CO`$, $`HD`$ and $`H_2`$ in the range 3-300 K. $`CO`$ is the main coolant in the range of temperatures 3-80 K, $`HD`$ in the range 80-150 K and $`H_2`$ dominates above 150 K.

## 2 Thermal equilibrium

The heating is given by the external X-ray flux as produced from the hot intracluster gas. The thermal balance between heating and cooling leads to an equilibrium temperature for the clouds. We have calculated the minimum equilibrium temperature $`T_{clump}`$ of the clumps inside the cooling flow region. Table 1 shows the equilibrium temperature for different clusters. For comparison we give the values we find using our analytical approximation ($`N`$=1) and the ones by taking into account higher excited rotational levels ($`N`$=5). One clearly sees that the inclusion of the higher excited levels into the calculations lowers the equilibrium temperature, particularly for hot clusters such as for instance Abell 478.   
We conclude that thermal equilibrium can be achieved at very low temperatures inside the cooling flow region mainly due to $`CO`$-cooling. Other molecules than $`CO`$, for example $`CN`$ or $`H_2CO`$, could also be important. Thus the study of the chemistry in cooling flows might lead to important insight.

| Table 1. Equilibrium temperature | | |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cluster | $`T_{clump}\left(N=1\right)`$ | $`T_{clump}\left(N=5\right)`$ |
|  | (in K) | (in K) |
| PKS 0745-191 | 4 | 3 |
| Hydra A | 4 | 3 |
| Abell 478 | 75 | 10 |
| Centaurus | 25 | 4 |

Acknowledgements.  We would like to thank M. Plionis and I. Georgantopoulos for organizing such a pleasant conference. This work has been supported by the Dr Tomalla Foundation and by the Swiss National Science Foundation.