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Description
There are significant amounts of H_2_ in the Milky Way. Due to its symmetry H_2_ does not radiate at radio frequencies. CO is thought to be a tracer for H_2_, however CO is formed at significantly higher opacities than H_2_. Thus, toward high Galactic latitudes significant amounts of H_2_ are hidden and called CO-dark. We demonstrate that the dust-to-gas ratio is a tool to identify locations and column densities of CO-dark H_2_. We adopt the hypothesis of a constant E(B-V)/NH ratio, independent of phase transitions from HI to H_2_. We investigate the Doppler temperatures T_D_, from a Gaussian decomposition of HI4PI data, to study temperature dependencies of E(B-V)/NHI. The E(B-V)/NHI ratio in the cold HI gas phase is high in comparison to the warmer one. We consider this as evidence that cold HI gas toward high Galactic latitudes is associated with H_2_. Beyond CO-bright regions we find for T_D_<1165K a correlation (NHI+2NH_2_)/NHI{prop.to}-log T_D_. In combination with a factor XCO=4.0x10^20^cm^-2^(K.km/s)^-1^ this yields for the full-sky NH/E(B-V)~5.1 to 6.7 10^21^cm^-2^mag^-1^, compatible with X-ray scattering and UV absorption line observations. Cold HI with T_D_<1165K contains on average 46% CO-dark H_2_. Prominent filaments have T_D_<220K and typical excitation temperatures Tex~50K. With a molecular gas fraction of >61% they are dominated dynamically by H_2_.
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