{"paper":{"title":"A General Model for the CO-H2 Conversion Factor in Galaxies with Applications to the Star Formation Law","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["astro-ph.CO"],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.GA","authors_text":"Desika Narayanan (Arizona), Eve C. Ostriker (Maryland), Lars Hernquist (Harvard), Mark R. Krumholz (UCSC)","submitted_at":"2011-10-17T20:00:09Z","abstract_excerpt":"The most common means of converting an observed CO line intensity into a molecular gas mass requires the use of a conversion factor (Xco). While in the Milky Way this quantity does not appear to vary significantly, there is good reason to believe that Xco will depend on the larger-scale galactic environment. Utilising numerical models, we investigate how varying metallicities, gas temperatures and velocity dispersions in galaxies impact the way CO line emission traces the underlying H2 gas mass, and under what circumstances Xco may differ from the Galactic mean value. We find that, due to the "},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"1110.3791","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}