Infrared Dark Clouds in the Small Magellanic Cloud?
  We have applied the unsharp-masking technique to the 24 $\mu$m image of the
Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, to
search for high-extinction regions. This technique has been used to locate very
dense and cold interstellar clouds in the Galaxy, particularly infrared dark
clouds (IRDCs). Fifty five candidate regions of high-extinction, namely
high-contrast regions (HCRs), have been identified from the generated
decremental contrast image of the SMC. Most HCRs are located in the southern
bar region and mainly distributed in the outskirts of CO clouds, but most
likely contain a significant amount of H2. HCRs have a peak-contrast at 24
$\mu$m of 2 - 2.5 % and a size of 8 - 14 pc. This corresponds to the size of
typical and large Galactic IRDCs, but Galactic IRDCs are 2 - 3 times darker at
24 $\mu$m than our HCRs. To constrain the physical properties of the HCRs, we
have performed NH3, N2H+, HNC, HCO+, and HCN observations toward one of the
HCRs, HCR LIRS36-EAST, using the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the
Mopra single-dish radio telescope. We did not detect any molecular line
emission, however, our upper limits to the column densities of molecular
species suggest that HCRs are most likely moderately dense with n ~ 10^{3}
cm-3. This volume density is in agreement with predictions for the cool atomic
phase in low metallicity environments. We suggest that HCRs may be tracing
clouds at the transition from atomic to molecule-dominated medium, and could be
a powerful way to study early stages of gas condensation in low metallicity
galaxies. Alternatively, if made up of dense molecular clumps < 0.5 pc in size,
HCRs could be counterparts of Galactic IRDCs, and/or regions with highly
unusual abundance of very small dust grains.
