Turbulent molecular gas and star formation in the shocked intergalactic
  medium of Stephan's Quintet
  We report on single-dish radio CO observations towards the inter-galactic
medium (IGM) of the Stephan's Quintet (SQ) group of galaxies. Extremely bright
mid-IR H2 rotational line emission from warm molecular gas has been detected by
Spitzer in the kpc-scale shock created by a galaxy collision. We detect in the
IGM CO(1-0), (2-1) and (3-2) line emission with complex profiles, spanning a
velocity range of 1000 km/s. The spectra exhibit the pre-shock recession
velocities of the two colliding gas systems (5700 and 6700 km/s), but also
intermediate velocities. This shows that much of the molecular gas has formed
out of diffuse gas accelerated by the galaxy-tidal arm collision. A total H2
mass of 5x10^9 Msun is detected in the shock. The molecular gas carries a large
fraction of the gas kinetic energy involved in the collision, meaning that this
energy has not been thermalized yet. The turbulent kinetic energy of the H2 gas
is at least a factor of 5 greater than the thermal energy of the hot plasma
heated by the collision. The ratio between the warm H2 mass derived from
Spitzer IRS spectroscopy and the H2 mass derived from CO fluxes is ~0.3 in the
IGM of SQ, which is 10-100 times higher than in star-forming galaxies. In the
shocked region, the ratio of the PAH-to-CO surface luminosities, commonly used
to measure the star formation efficiency of the H2 gas, is lower (up to a
factor 75) than the observed values in star-forming galaxies. We suggest that
turbulence fed by the galaxy-tidal arm collision maintains a high heating rate
within the H2 gas. This interpretation implies that the velocity dispersion on
the scale of giant molecular clouds in SQ is one order of magnitude larger than
the Galactic value. The high amplitude of turbulence may explain why this gas
is not forming stars efficiently. [abridged version]
