DETAILS ABOUT MY RESEARCH

Molecular Hydrogen plays an important role in astrophysics. It is the first and the most abundant neutral molecule to be formed in the Universe. We consider a complete model of the H2 molecule that we have implemented in the spectra simulation code Cloudy. The H2 molecule has 1893 levels which produces tens of thousand lines. We consider all physical processes, including ionization, heating, cooling, molecule formation, and grain physics, simultaneously and self-consistently, extending from the H II region through the PDR and molecular cloud. Effects of cosmic rays and the x-ray continuum are included as well. This allows the full UV IR spectrum, including emission from atoms, ions, and molecules, to be predicted after the gas density and ionizing continuum are specified. We study the physical conditions in high red-shift DLAs with the help of H2 spectroscopy.