Hydrogen volume densities in nearby galaxies - I. An automated approach

Using a simple model of photodissociated atomic hydrogen on a galactic scale, it is possible to derive total hydrogen volume densities. These densities, obtained through a combination of atomic hydrogen, far-ultraviolet and metallicity data, provide an independent probe of the combined atomic and molecular hydrogen gas in galactic discs. We present a new, flexible and fully automated procedure using this simple model. This automated method will allow us to take full advantage of a host of available data on galaxies in order to calculate the total hydrogen volume densities of the giant molecular clouds surrounding sites of recent star formation. Until now this was only possible on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis using by-eye analysis of candidate photodissociation regions. We test the automated method by adopting various models for the dust-to-gas ratio and comparing the resulting densities for M74, including a new metallicity map of M74 produced by integral field spectroscopy. We test the procedure against previously published M83 volume densities based on the same method and find no significant differences. The range of total hydrogen volume densities obtained for M74 is approximately 5-700 cm−3. Different dust-to-gas ratio models do not result in measurably different densities. The cloud densities presented here mean that M74 is added to the list of galaxies analysed using the assumption of photodissociated atomic hydrogen occurring near sites of recent star formation, and consolidate the method. For the first time, full metallicity maps are included in the analysis as opposed to metallicity gradients. The results will need to be compared with other tracers of the interstellar medium and photodissociation regions, such as CO and C ii, in order to test our basic assumptions, specifically our assumption that the H i we detect originates in photodissociation regions.