The formation of the W43 complex: constraining its atomic-to-molecular transition and searching for colliding clouds

Understand

Numerical simulations have explored the possibility to form molecular clouds through either a quasi-static, self-gravitating mechanism or the collision of gas streams or lower-density clouds.

• They also quantitatively predict the distribution of matter at the transition from atomic to molecular gases.
• We aim to observationally test these models by studying the environment of W43, a molecular cloud complex near the tip of the Galactic long bar.
• Using Galaxy-wide HI and 12CO surveys we searched for gas flowing toward the W43 molecular cloud complex.