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R. Indebetouw, J.M. Shull, J. Stocke (CASA, APS, U Colorado)
The relative distribution of hot and cold gas is a critical part of any model of the interstellar medium of galaxies, but this distribution is still not fully understood. An important probe of this phase distribution is the topology and production mechanism of interphase gas at several 105K. The UV resonance lines of the Li-like ions of common metals are extremely sensitive to this gas, and the column density ratios of e.g. CIV, NV, and OVI are a strong diagnostic of its production mechanism. We present a survey of these ions in the galactic halo and disk, using FUSE, STIS, and GHRS data. We discuss the distribution of ion ratios, concentrating on OVI/NV, in the context of production models - thermal conduction, radiative cooling, and turbulent mixing.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: indebeto@colorado.edu