Water Abundance and Ortho-Para Ratio in the S140 Photon Dominated Region
Abstract
We analyzed archival far-infrared to submillimeter Herschel PACS, SPIRE, and HIFI spectroscopic observations of the S140 photon dominated region (PDR) to constrain the water vapor abundance and ortho-para ratio in this region. Toward the high-mass protostar IRS1, 52 spectral lines, including 15 water lines, are detected with the PACS and SPIRE instruments. PDR modeling suggests a UV radiation field G0 ~ 1 x 10^3 Habing units, and a thermal gas pressure of 5 x 10^8 K cm^-3 in this region. The models strongly underestimate intensities of high-J CO lines, which may indicate the presence of hot shocked gas associated with outflows along the line of sight, in addition to the UV irradiated gas. The spectral resolution of the PACS and SPIRE spectrometers is insufficient to separate the PDR and shock contributions. The PDR models further suggest that optically thick ground-state water lines trace primarily surface layers of the PDR. The gas temperature in this region is predicted to be ~ 800 K and the water abundance with respect to hydrogen nuclei reaches ~ 10^-5. However, the bulk of gas-phase water is located in a more shielded region, deeper inside the PDR, with a gas temperature ~ 24 K, and a gas-phase H_2O abundance of ~ 10^-7. A comparison of the observed water line fluxes toward IRS1 with PDR model predictions shows no evidence for departures from the LTE ortho-para ratio at the local gas temperature, which is assumed in the models. The sensitivity of the Herschel instruments was insufficient to measure the water ortho-para ratio toward the externally illuminated edge-on PDR at the surface of the S140 molecular cloud. Such observations will be possible with the next generation far-infrared spectroscopic space missions currently in development.
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BibTeX
@misc{lis2026water,
title = {{Water Abundance and Ortho-Para Ratio in the S140 Photon Dominated Region}},
author = {Dariusz C. Lis and Sofia Lawsky and Emeric Bron and Franck Le Petit and Javier R. Goicoechea},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.06277},
eprint = {2610.06277},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06277},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Water Abundance and Ortho-Para Ratio in the S140 Photon Dominated Region
AU - Dariusz C. Lis
AU - Sofia Lawsky
AU - Emeric Bron
AU - Franck Le Petit
AU - Javier R. Goicoechea
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.06277
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06277
AB - We analyzed archival far-infrared to submillimeter Herschel PACS, SPIRE, and HIFI spectroscopic observations of the S140 photon dominated region (PDR) to constrain the water vapor abundance and ortho-para ratio in this region. Toward the high-mass protostar IRS1, 52 spectral lines, including 15 water lines, are detected with the PACS and SPIRE instruments. PDR modeling suggests a UV radiation field G0 ~ 1 x 10^3 Habing units, and a thermal gas pressure of 5 x 10^8 K cm^-3 in this region. The models strongly underestimate intensities of high-J CO lines, which may indicate the presence of hot shocked gas associated with outflows along the line of sight, in addition to the UV irradiated gas. The spectral resolution of the PACS and SPIRE spectrometers is insufficient to separate the PDR and shock contributions. The PDR models further suggest that optically thick ground-state water lines trace primarily surface layers of the PDR. The gas temperature in this region is predicted to be ~ 800 K and the water abundance with respect to hydrogen nuclei reaches ~ 10^-5. However, the bulk of gas-phase water is located in a more shielded region, deeper inside the PDR, with a gas temperature ~ 24 K, and a gas-phase H_2O abundance of ~ 10^-7. A comparison of the observed water line fluxes toward IRS1 with PDR model predictions shows no evidence for departures from the LTE ortho-para ratio at the local gas temperature, which is assumed in the models. The sensitivity of the Herschel instruments was insufficient to measure the water ortho-para ratio toward the externally illuminated edge-on PDR at the surface of the S140 molecular cloud. Such observations will be possible with the next generation far-infrared spectroscopic space missions currently in development.
ER -