OPTICALLY THICK Hi DOMINANT IN THE LOCAL INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM: AN ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION TO DARK GAS

Dark gas in the interstellar medium (ISM) is believed to not be detectable either in CO or Hi radio emission, but it is detectable by other means including gamma rays, dust emission, and extinction traced outside the Galactic plane at vertical bar b vertical bar > 5 degrees. In these analyses, the 21 cm Hi emission is usually assumed to be completely optically thin. We have reanalyzed the Hi emission from the whole sky at vertical bar b vertical bar > 15 degrees by considering temperature stratification in the ISM inferred from the Planck/IRAS analysis of the dust properties. The results indicate that the Hi emission is saturated with an optical depth ranging from 0.5 to 3 for 85% of the local Hi gas. This optically thick Hi is characterized by spin temperature in the range 10 K-60 K, significantly lower than previously postulated in the literature, whereas such low temperature is consistent with emission/absorption measurements of the cool Hi toward radio continuum sources. The distribution and the column density of the Hi are consistent with those of the dark gas suggested by gamma rays, and it is possible that the dark gas in the Galaxy is dominated by optically thick cold Hi gas. This result implies that the average density of Hi is 2-2.5 times higher than that derived on the optically thin assumption in the local ISM.