# ISO observations toward the reflection nebula NGC 7023: A nonequilibrium ortho- to para-H2 ratio1footnote 11footnote 1Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and with participation of ISAS and NASA

## 1 Introduction

The Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) has allowed us, for the first time, to observe the pure rotational spectrum of H<sub>2</sub> and study the OTP ratio in warm (T$``$ 100 - 1000 K) regions. Previous to ISO observations, the OTP ratio of H<sub>2</sub> had been estimated towards regions heated by UV radiation and shocks to temperatures $`>`$ 2000 K using the relative strengths of the vibrational lines. In outflow regions where shock excitation is the main heating mechanism, observations of the vibrational lines typically reveal OTP ratios of $``$ 3 (Smith, Davis & Lioure 1997). This is the expected value in thermodynamic equilibrium for gas with temperatures $`>`$ 200 K. However, towards the regions heated mainly by the UV radiation (PDRs), the vibrational lines give OTP values in the range 1.5 - 2 (see e.g. Chrysostomou et al. 1993). The pure rotational lines of H<sub>2</sub> have been detected by ISO toward several Galactic regions (S140: Timmermann et al. 1996; Cepheus A West: Wright et al. 1996; BD+404124: Wesselius et al. 1996; HH54: Neufeld et al. 1998). The observations towards all these regions except HH54 are consistent with the H<sub>2</sub> rotational lines arising in gas with temperature $`>`$ 200 K and with an OTP ratio of 3. This value is not consistent with those derived from the vibrational lines in dense PDRs but is in agreement with theoretical predictions. Recently Sternberg & Neufeld (1999) have argued that the low OTP ratios measured from vibrational lines do not represent the actual OTP ratio in PDRs but it is simply a consequence of the optical depth effects in the fluorescent pumping of the vibrational lines. The non-equilibrium OTP ratio measured towards HH54 has been interpreted as arising in hot-shocked excited gas that has not reached the equilibrium yet. In this interpretation, the observed OTP ratio would be the legacy of an earlier stage in the thermal history of the gas when the gas temperature was 90 K.

In this Letter we report the observations of the H<sub>2</sub> rotational lines towards the prototypical PDR associated with the reflection nebula NGC 7023. An OTP ratio in the range 1.5 - 2 is derived from our observations. This is the first detection of an OTP ratio $`<`$ 3 in a PDR based on the pure H<sub>2</sub> rotational lines.

## 2 Observations

The observations of the S(0), S(1), S(2), S(3), S(4) and S(5) rotational lines of H<sub>2</sub> towards the peak of the PDR associated with NGC 7023 (R.A. (2000): 21<sup>h</sup>01<sup>m</sup>32<sup>s</sup>.5, Dec(2000): 681027<sup>′′</sup>.5). were made using the Short-Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) (de Grauuw et al. 1996) on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) (Kessler et al. 1996) during revolution 514 with a total on-target time of 5149 s. At the spectral resolution of this mode ($`\lambda `$/$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$$`\lambda `$ $``$ 1000-2000) all the observed lines are unresolved. Data reduction are carried out with version 7.0 of the Off Line Processing routines and the SWS Interactive Analysis at the ISO Spectrometer Data Center at MPE. Further analysis has been made using the ISAP software package. The uncertainities in the calibration are of 15 %, 25 %, 25 %, 25 %, 20% and 30% for the S(5), S(4), S(3), S(2), S(1) and S(0) lines respectively (Salama et al. 1997).

## 3 H<sub>2</sub> rotational lines

In Fig. 1 we present the spectra of the S(0), S(1), S(2), S(3), S(4) and S(5) H<sub>2</sub> lines towards the peak of the PDR associated with NGC 7023. The observed intensitites and some interesting observational parameters are presented in Table 1. The data have been corrected for dust attenuation using the extinction curve of Draine & Lee (1984), and a value of 0.43 for the dust opacity at 0.55 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$. This value has been derived from the ISO LWS01 spectrum (Fuente et al. 1999, hereafter paper II). The extinction for the S(0), S(1), S(2), S(3), S(4) and S(5) lines is very small and amounts to 0.01, 0.02, 0.02, 0.04, 0.02 and 0.01 respectively. Fig. 2 shows the rotational diagram for the H<sub>2</sub> corrected for extinction effects and assuming extended emission. (Note that the errors in Fig. 2 are entirely dominated by the calibration uncertainities.)

This diagram shows that the ortho-H<sub>2</sub> levels have systematically lower N<sub>u</sub>/g<sub>u</sub> values (where N<sub>u</sub> and g<sub>u</sub> are the column densities and degeneracies of the upper levels of the transitions) than the adjacent J–1 and J+1 para-H<sub>2</sub> levels producing a $`\mathrm{`}\mathrm{`}`$zig-zag” distribution. In fact, the ortho-H<sub>2</sub> levels seem to define a curve which is offset from that of the para-H<sub>2</sub> levels (see Fig. 2). This is the expected trend if the OTP ratio is lower than 3. The offset between the two set of data is systematic and seems to show the trend of being larger for the low energy levels (S(0) and S(1) transitions), than for the high energy levels (S(2), S(3), S(4) and S(5) transitions).

The offset between the ortho- and para- H<sub>2</sub> curves is larger than the observational errors and cannot be due to the different apertures for the different lines. For the case of a point-like source we would have to correct by a factor of 1.93 the intensity of the S(0) line and by a factor of 1.35 the intensities of the S(1) and S(2) lines. In this case, the offset between the para- and ortho- curves would increase. Based on the spatial distribution of the HI(21 cm) line (Fuente et al. 1998) and those of the CII (158 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$) and OI (63 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$) lines (Chokshi et al. 1988, paper II), we will assume in the following a beam filling factor of 1 for all the observed H<sub>2</sub> lines. Although the exact shape of the rotational diagram depends on the excitation conditions of the region, the $`\mathrm{`}\mathrm{`}`$zig-zag” features cannot be explained by any model which assumes an equilibrium OTP ratio. In thermodynamic equilibrium, the rotational temperature between an ortho- (para-) H<sub>2</sub> level and the next J+1 level should always increase with the energy of the upper level giving rise to a smooth curve in the rotational diagram regardless of the temperature profile of the region. A $`\mathrm{`}\mathrm{`}`$zig-zag” distribution implies that for some pair of levels the rotational temperature decreases with the energy of the upper level. One can only get this effect with a non-equilibrium OTP ratio.

We have compared our data with the models by Burton et al. (1992) in order to estimate the incident UV field, density and OTP ratio. Burton et al. (1992) assumed a constant value of 3 for the OTP ratio in their calculations. The best fit to our data is for an incident UV field of G<sub>o</sub> = 10<sup>4</sup> in units of the Habing field and a density of n = 10<sup>6</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup>, but it systematically underestimates the intensity of the para-H<sub>2</sub> transitions and overestimates the intensities of the ortho-H<sub>2</sub> transitions (see open triangles in Fig. 3). This is the expected behavior if one assumes an OTP ratio of 3 and the actual OTP ratio in the region is $`<`$ 3. We have corrected the line intensities predicted by the model for different values of the OTP ratio assuming that the total amount of H<sub>2</sub> molecules at a given temperature and the line ratios between levels of the same symmetry are not affected by the OTP ratio. These assumptions are correct for the low-J transitions where the collisional excitation dominates. In Fig. 3 we compare our data with the predicted diagram for an OTP ratio of 3 which correspond to the model without any correction (open triangles), 2 (open circles) and 1 (open squares). The diagram for an OTP ratio of 3 clearly does not fit any of our observational points. We find the best fit to our data with an OTP ratio of 2. In this case, the predicted intensities for the S(1), S(2) and S(3) lines are in agreement with the observed values. Only the predicted intensity for the S(0) line is not consistent with the observations. To fit the intensity of the S(0) line it is necessary to assume an OTP ratio of $``$ 1.5 (see the case OTP = 1 in Fig. 3), but in this case, we will have a worse fit for the S(1), S(2) and S(3) lines than for an OTP ratio of 2. As discussed in Section 4, this suggests a possible variation of the OTP ratio with the temperature. The cooler gas emitting only in the S(0) line could have an OTP ratio of $`<`$ 1.5, while the warmer gas emitting in the S(1), S(2) and S(3) lines could have an OTP ratio of 2. However, to establish this variation unambigously, it is necessary to have a very accurate knowledge of the excitation conditions in the region. To be conservative, we will conclude that the OTP ratio is in the range 1.5 - 2 in this PDR. Martini et al. (1997) found an OTP ratio of 2.5$`\pm `$0.4 using the near-IR H<sub>2</sub> vibrational lines towards their position 1 which is 20<sup>′′</sup> offset from ours. Taking into account that because of the optical depth effects in the vibrational lines this value is just a lower limit to the actual OTP ratio, it proves that the OTP ratio is close to 3 for the gas with kinetic temperatures T<sub>k</sub> $`>`$ 2000 K. This difference between the OTP ratios derived from the rotational and vibrational lines argues in favor of a variaton of the OTP ratio with the kinetic temperature.

Since the OTP ratio in this source is different from the equilibrium value, the rotation temperature between an ortho- and a para- level does not represent an estimate of the gas kinetic temperature. To estimate the gas kinetic temperature we have calculated the rotation temperature between levels of the same symmetry. For the para-H<sub>2</sub> levels, we have derived a rotation temperature of $``$ 290 K from the S(0) and S(2) lines and of $``$ 500 K from the S(2) and S(4) lines. For the ortho-H<sub>2</sub> levels, the derived temperature is $``$ 440 from S(1) and S(3) lines and $``$ 700 K from the S(3) and S(5) lines. Based on these calculations we conclude that the OTP ratio is $``$ 1.5 - 2 in the gas with kinetic temperatures $``$ 300 - 700 K. We derive a total H<sub>2</sub> column density of 5 10<sup>20</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup> assuming a rotation temperature of 290 K between the J = 0 and J = 2 para-levels and of 440 K between the J = 1 and J = 3 ortho-levels.

## 4 Discussion

Based on the H<sub>2</sub> rotational lines data we have derived an OTP ratio in the range of 1.5 - 2 for the gas with kinetic temperatures $``$ 300 - 700 K towards the reflection nebula NGC 7023. This is the second object with a non-equilibrium OTP ratio measured from the H<sub>2</sub> pure rotational lines. The first non-equilibrium OTP ratio was detected towards the outflow source HH54, and interpreted as arising in shock-heated gas that has not reached the equilibrium yet. This interpretation is not plausible for NGC 7023. The high dust temperature,T<sub>d</sub>$``$ 40 K, and the detection of the SiII (34.8 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$) and CII (157.7 $`\mu \mathrm{m}`$) lines (paper II) proves the existence of a PDR in this region. Although a shock component might also exist (see Martini et al. 1997), the heating is dominated by UV photons. It is then expected that most of the warm H<sub>2</sub> arises in the PDR.

A non-equilibrium value of the OTP ratio is not expected for the physical conditions prevailing in a dense PDR. The initial OTP ratio after the H<sub>2</sub> formation is very uncertain. Because of the large exothermicity of the formation process, it is expected to be 3 . However, this OTP ratio can change if the H<sub>2</sub> molecules remain on the grain surface long enough to reach the equilibrium at the dust temperature. In this case, the OTP ratio after H<sub>2</sub> formation will be that of the equilibrium at the grain temperature. After the ejection of the H<sub>2</sub> molecules to the gas phase, exchange reactions with H and H<sup>+</sup> change the OTP ratio until achieving the equilibrium at the gas temperature. For the gas temperatures traced by the H<sub>2</sub> rotational lines ($`>`$ 200 K), the equilibrium OTP ratio is 3. One possibility to explain the low OTP ratio observed in NGC 7023 is to suppose that the OTP ratio in the H<sub>2</sub> formation is lower than 3, and once in the gas phase, the H<sub>2</sub> molecules are destroyed before attaining the equilibrium value at the gas temperature. The dust temperature in a PDR with G<sub>o</sub> = 10<sup>4</sup> and n = 10<sup>6</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup> is $`<`$ 100 K. In particular, the dust temperature measured towards the PDR peak in NGC 7023 using our LWS01 spectrum is 40 K which corresponds to an equilibrium OTP ratio of $``$ 0.1. The OTP conversion in the atomic region is dominated by H - H<sub>2</sub> collisions with a rate of 10$`{}_{}{}^{13}n`$ s<sup>-1</sup> where $`n`$ is the atomic hydrogen density (see Sternberg & Neufeld 1999 and references therein). The hydrogen density derived from the HI image published by Fuente et al. (1998) is $``$ 5 10<sup>3</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup>. A similar value ($``$ 0.5 - 1 10<sup>4</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup>) was derived by Chokshi et al. (1988) based on the OI and CII lines. However, densities larger than 10<sup>5</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup> are derived from molecular data (Fuente et al. 1996, Lemaire et al. 1996, Gerin et al. 1998). The density of atomic hydrogen in the region with T<sub>k</sub> $``$ 300 K is expected to be about an order of magnitude lower than the H<sub>2</sub> density. Then we assume an atomic hydrogen density of $``$ 10<sup>4</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup> in our calculations. With this value, the OTP conversion rate due to H<sub>2</sub> \- H collisions is 10<sup>-9</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>. At the cloud surface the unshielded photodissociation rate is $``$ 5 10$`{}_{}{}^{11}G_{}^{}`$ s<sup>-1</sup> $``$ 5 10<sup>-7</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>, i.e., 2 orders of magnitude larger than the OTP conversion rate. Then, in the cloud surface, before self-shielding is important (A<sub>v</sub> $``$ 0.3 mag, T<sub>k</sub>$`>`$ 500 K), an OTP ratio lower than 3 can be explained by assuming that the OTP ratio in the H<sub>2</sub> formation is the equilibrium value at the grain temperature. Deeper into the molecular cloud, when H<sub>2</sub> is self-shielded, one can consider that the H<sub>2</sub> destruction rate is similar to the H<sub>2</sub> reformation rate which is given by $``$ 3 10$`{}_{}{}^{17}n`$ s<sup>-1</sup>. In this region, a lower limit to the OTP conversion rate is given by the conversion rate due to H<sub>2</sub> \- H<sup>+</sup> collisions which is $``$ 10$`{}_{}{}^{17}n`$ s<sup>-1</sup> (Sternberg & Neufeld 1999). The OTP conversion rate is of the same order than the destruction rate and the OTP ratio is expected to be close to the equilibrium. According to these estimates one expects to have an OTP ratio close to 3 at low temperatures and a non-equilibrium OTP ratio at higher temperatures. The contrary trend is derived from our observations. The high energy S(1), S(2) and S(3) lines are fitted with an an OTP ratio of 2 while the low energy S(0) line is better fitted with an OTP ratio of 1.5.

Another possibility to explain the non-equilibrium OTP value in NGC 7023 is to consider the case of a dynamic PDR, i.e. the dissociation front is advancing into the molecular cloud. In this case we do not have to assume a non-equilibrium OTP ratio in the H<sub>2</sub> formation. The PDR is being fed continuously by the cool gas of the molecular cloud in which the equilibrium value of the OTP ratio is lower than 3. This gas is heated by the stellar UV radiation to temperatures $`>`$ 200 K but leaves the PDR before attaining the equilibrium OTP ratio at this temperature. In this scenario, the gas which is expected to have an OTP ratio smaller than the equilibrium value is the gas that has more recently been incorporated into the PDR, which is also the gas at lowest temperature. The OTP ratio is expected to increase and reach values close to 3 at high temperatures. This behavior is consistent with the trend observed in our data. As discussed above, the OTP H<sub>2</sub> conversion is mainly due to H - H<sub>2</sub> collisions with a conversion rate of $``$ 10<sup>-9</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>. To have a significant fraction of the gas with a non-equilibrium OTP ratio the photodissociation front must advance about 1 - 2 mag in the conversion time, i.e., it must penetrate into the molecular cloud at a velocity of $``$ 10$`{}_{}{}^{7}n_{}^{1}`$ kms<sup>-1</sup>. Skinner et al. (1993) proposed the existence of an anisotropic ionized wind associated with this star based on radio continuum observations. Later, Fuente et al. (1998) detected an HI outflow with a velocity of $``$ 7.5 kms<sup>-1</sup>. They proposed that this outflow is formed when the gas that has been photodissociated by the UV radiation, is accelerated by the stellar winds along the walls of a biconical cavity. The velocity of the HI outflow cannot account for the velocity at which the photodissociation front must advance into the molecular cloud to have an OTP ratio lower than 3 unless the OTP conversion rates are severely overestimated (by a factor of $`>`$ 10) and/or the density of the outflow is $`>`$ 10<sup>5</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup>. In spite of this problem, a photodissociation front penetrating into the cloud because of the outflow seems to be the most plausible explanation for the low OTP ratio measured in this region. The existence of an outflow can also explain the difference between this region and other PDRs like S140 in which an OTP ratio of 3 has been derived from the H<sub>2</sub> rotational lines.

We would like to thank the referee for his/her helpful comments. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish DGES under grant number PB93-0048 and the Spanish PNIE under grant number ESP97-1490-E. N.J.R-F acknowledges Conserjería de Educación y Cultura de la Comunidad de Madrid for a pre-doctoral fellowship.