Narrow-line H i and cold structures in the interstellar medium

Abstract

Context. Studying the H i line profiles in the Leiden-Argentina-Bonn (LAB) all-sky database, we have found a population of very cold H i clouds. So far, the role of these clouds in the interstellar medium (ISM) has remained unclear.
Aims: In this paper, we attempt to confirm the existence of the narrow-line H i emission (NHIE) clouds by using the data from the Parkes Galactic all-sky survey (GASS) and try to find their place among other coldest constituents of the ISM.
Methods: We repeat the search of NHIE with the GASS data and derive or compile some preliminary estimates for the distribution, temperatures, distances, linear sizes, column and number densities, masses and the composition of NHIE clouds, and compare these data with corresponding estimates for H i self-absorption (HISA) features, the Planck cold clumps (CC) and infrared dark clouds (IRDC).
Results: We demonstrate that from LAB and GASS we can separate comparable NHIE complexes and the properties of the obtained NHIE clouds are very similar to those of HISA features, but both of these types of clouds are somewhat warmer, more extended and of lower densities than the cores in the Planck CC and IRDC.
Conclusions: We conclude that NHIE may be of the same type of clouds as HISA, but in different observing conditions, as the Planck CC and IRDC are most likely similar ISM structures in different observing conditions and probably in slightly different evolutionary stages. Both NHIE and HISA may be an intermediate phase between the diffuse cold neutral medium and star forming molecular clumps represented by the Planck CC and IRDC.