HD molecules at high redshift: cosmic ray ionization rate in the diffuse interstellar medium

International audienceWe present a systematic study of deuterated molecular hydrogen (HD) at high redshift, detected in absorption in the spectra of quasars. We present four new identifications of HD lines associated with known |$\rm H_2$|-bearing Damped Lyman-α systems. In addition, we measure upper limits on the |$\rm HD$| column density in 12 recently identified |$\rm H_2$|-bearing DLAs. We find that the new |$\rm HD$| detections have similar |$N({\rm HD})/N(\rm H_2)$| ratios as previously found, further strengthening a marked difference with measurements through the Galaxy. This is likely due to differences in physical conditions and metallicity between the local and the high-redshift interstellar media. Using the measured N(HD)/N(H_2) ratios together with priors on the UV flux (χ) and number densities (n), obtained from analysis of |$\rm H_2$| and associated C i lines, we are able to constrain the cosmic ray ionization rate (CRIR, ζ) for the new |$\rm HD$| detections and for eight known HD-bearing systems where priors on n and χ are available. We find significant dispersion in ζ, from a few × 10^−18 s^−1 to a few × 10^−15 s^−1. We also find that ζ strongly correlates with χ – showing almost quadratic dependence, slightly correlates with Z, and does not correlate with n, which probably reflects a physical connection between cosmic rays and star-forming regions