The Thinnest Cold H i Clouds in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium?

Abstract

We have obtained deep HI observations in the direction of 22 continuum sources without previously detected cold neutral medium (CNM). 18 CNM clouds were detected with the typical HI column density of $3\times10^{18}$ cm$^{-2}$. Our surprisingly high detection rate suggests that clouds with low HI column densities are quite common in the interstellar medium. These clouds appear to represent an extension of the traditional CNM cloud population, yet have sizes in hundreds to thousands of AUs. We present properties of the newly-detected CNM sample, and discuss several theoretical avenues important for understanding the production mechanisms of these clouds.