The influence of variations of elemental composition on the thermal properties of interstellar gas

Abstract

The mixing of metals and redistribution of the relative abundances of chemical elements in the interstellar medium often takes place on a timescale that exceeds the characteristic timescales for many other processes, such as ionization and the establishment of thermal equilibrium. Under these conditions, different regions of interstellar gas can have different thermal, chemical, and spectral properties. The paper considers the ionization kinetics and thermal regime of interstellar gas with variations in the relative elemental abundances. The thermal properties and observational (spectral) characteristics are most sensitive to variations of the relative abundance of carbon, oxygen, neon, and iron. The dynamic consequences of such variations are considered.