Diffuse Galactic light at high Galactic latitude: nature and interpretation

The hypothesis of an extended red emission (ERE) in diffuse Galactic light (DGL) has been put forward in 1998 by Gordon, Witt & Friedmann who found that scattered starlight was not enough to explain the amount of DGL in the R band, in some high Galactic latitude directions. This paper re-investigates, for high Galactic latitudes, the brightnesses and colours of DGL, integrated star and galaxy light (ISGL), and of the total extrasolar light (ISGL+DGL) measured by Pioneer. Under the traditional assumption that DGL is forward scattering of background starlight by interstellar dust on the line of sight, ISGL and Pioneer have very close colours, as it is found by Gordon, Witt & Friedmann. Pioneer observations at high |b| thus accept an alternative and simple interpretation, with no involvement of ERE in DGL.     

The complex, variable near-infrared extinction towards the Nuclear Bulge

Using deep J -, H - and K _S-band observations, we have studied the near-infrared extinction of the Nuclear Bulge, and find significant, complex variations on small physical scales. We have applied a new variable near-infrared colour excess (V-NICE) method to measure the extinction; this method allows for variation in both the extinction law parameter α and the degree of absolute extinction on very small physical scales. We see significant variation in both these parameters on scales of 5 arcsec. In our observed fields, representing a random sample of sight lines to the Nuclear Bulge, we measure α to be  2.64 ± 0.52  , compared to the canonical 'universal' value of 2. Our measured levels of     are similar to previously measured results     ; however, the steeper extinction law results in higher values for   A_J (4.5 ≤ A_J ≤ 10  ) and   A_H (1.5 ≤ A_H ≤ 6.5  ). Only when the extinction law is allowed to vary on the smallest scales can we recover self-consistent measures of the absolute extinction at each wavelength, allowing accurate reddening corrections for field star photometry in the Nuclear Bulge. The steeper extinction law slope also suggests that previous conversions of near-infrared extinction to   A_V   may need to be reconsidered. Finally, we find that the measured values of extinction are significantly dependent on the filter transmission functions of the instrument used to obtain the data. This effect must be taken into account when combining or comparing data from different instruments.     

Some doubts on the validity of the foreground Galactic contribution subtraction from microwave anisotropies

The Galactic foreground contamination in CMBR anisotropies, especially from the dust component, is not easily separable from the cosmological or extragalactic component. In this paper, some doubts will be raised concerning the validity of the methods used until now to remove Galactic dust emission and will show that none of them achieves its goal. First, I review the recent bibliography on the topic and discuss critically the methods of foreground subtraction: the cross-correlation with templates, analysis assuming the spectral shape of the Galactic components, the “maximum entropy method”, “internal linear combination”, and “wavelet-based high resolution fitting of internal templates”. Second, I analyse the Galactic latitude dependence from WMAP data. The frequency dependence is discussed with data in the available literature. The result is that all methods of subtracting the Galactic contamination are inaccurate. The Galactic latitude dependence analysis or the frequency dependence of the anisotropies in the range 50–250 GHz put a constraint on the maximum Galactic contribution in the power spectrum to be less than ∼ 10% (68% C. L.) for an ∼ 1 degree scale, and possibly higher for larger scales. The origin of most of the signals in the CMBR anisotropies is not Galactic. In any case, the subtraction of the galaxy is not accurate enough to allow a “precision Cosmology”; other sources of contamination (extragalactic, solar system) are also present.     

Limited diversity of the interstellar extinction law

We have applied the method of investigating extinction curves using statistically meaningful samples that was proposed by us 25 years ago. The extensive data sets of the ANS (Astronomical Netherlands Satellite) and 2MASS (Two Micron All Sky Survey) were used, together with UBV photometry to create average extinction curves for samples of OB stars. Our results demonstrate that in the vast majority of cases the extinction curves are very close to the mean galactic extinction curve. Only a few objects were found to be obviously discrepant from the average. The latter phenomenon may be related to nitrogen chemistry in translucent interstellar clouds (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

High spatial resolution Galactic 3D extinction mapping with IPHAS

We present an algorithm (MEAD, for 'Mapping Extinction Against Distance') which will determine intrinsic  ( r '− i ')  colour, extinction, and distance for early-A to K4 stars extracted from the IPHAS   r '/ i '/Hα  photometric data base. These data can be binned up to map extinction in three dimensions across the northern Galactic plane. The large size of the IPHAS data base (∼200 million unique objects), the accuracy of the digital photometry it contains and its faint limiting magnitude  ( r '∼ 20)  allow extinction to be mapped with fine angular (∼10 arcmin) and distance (∼ 0.1 kpc) resolution to distances of up to 10 kpc, outside the solar circle. High reddening within the solar circle on occasion brings this range down to ∼2 kpc. The resolution achieved, both in angle and depth, greatly exceeds that of previous empirical 3D extinction maps, enabling the structure of the Galactic Plane to be studied in increased detail. MEAD accounts for the effect of the survey magnitude limits, photometric errors, unresolved interstellar medium (ISM) substructure and binarity. The impact of metallicity variations, within the range typical of the Galactic disc is small. The accuracy and reliability of MEAD are tested through the use of simulated photometry created with Monte Carlo sampling techniques. The success of this algorithm is demonstrated on a selection of fields and the results are compared to the literature.     

The structure of the Galactic bar

We present a deep near-infrared wide-angle photometric analysis of the structure of the inner Galactic bar and central disc. The presence of a triaxial structure at the centre of the Galaxy is confirmed, consistent with a bar inclined at  22°± 55  from the Sun—Galactic Centre line, extending to approximately 2.5 kpc from the Galactic Centre and with a rather small axis ratio. A feature at  ℓ=−98  not aligned with this triaxiality suggests the existence of a second structure in the inner Galaxy, a double triaxiality or an inner ring. We argue that this is likely to be the signature of the end of the Galactic bar, at approximately 2.5–3 kpc, which is circumscribed by an inner pseudo-ring. No thick dust lane preceding the bar is detected and a hole in the dust distribution of the disc inside the bar radius is inferred.     

The extinction curve in the visible and the value of RV: Addendum to AN 333, 160

This paper corrects and completes a previous study of the shape of the extinction curve in the visible and the value of R_V. A continuous visible/infrared extinction law proportional to 1/λ^p with p close to 1 (± 0.4) is indistinguishable from a perfectly linear law (p = 1) in the visible within observational precision, but the shape of the curve in the infrared can be substantially modified. Values of p slightly larger than 1 would account for the increase of extinction (compared to the p = 1 law) reported for λ > 1 μ m and deeply affect the value of R_V. In the absence of gray extinction R_V must be 4.04 if p = 1. It becomes 3.14 for p = 1.25, 3.00 for p = 1.30, and 2.76 for p = 1.40. Values of p near 1.3 are also attributed to extinction by atmospheric aerosols, which indicates that both phenomena may be governed by similar particle size distributions. A power extinction law may harmonize visible and infrared data into a single, continuous, and universal interstellar extinction law (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The far-infrared signature of dust in high-latitude regions

We present ISOPHOT observations of eight interstellar regions in the 60–200 μm wavelength range. The regions belong to mostly quiescent high-latitude clouds and have optical extinction peaks from   A_V ∼1–6 mag  . From the 150- and 200-μm emission, we derived colour temperatures for the classical big grain component which show a clear trend of decreasing temperature with increasing 200-μm emission. The 200-μm emission per unit   A_V   , however, does not drop at lower temperatures. This fact can be interpreted in terms of an increased far-infrared (FIR) emissivity of the big grains. We developed a two-component model including warm dust with the temperature of the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) of   T = 17.5 K  , and cold dust with   T = 13.5 K  and FIR emissivity increased by a factor of >4. A mixture of the two components can reproduce the observed colour variations and the ratios   I ₂₀₀/ A_V   and  τ₂₀₀/ A_V   . The relative abundance of small grains with respect to the big grains shows significant variations from region to region at low column densities. However, in lines of sight of higher column density, our data indicate the disappearance of small grains, perhaps a signature of adsorption/coagulation of dust. The larger size and porous structure could also explain the increased FIR emissivity. Our results from eight independent regions suggest that these grains might be ubiquitous in the galactic ISM.     

Extinction techniques and impact on dust property determination

The near-infrared (NIR) extinction power-law index (β) and its uncertainty is derived from three different techniques based on star counts, colour excess and a combination of them. We have applied these methods to Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) data to determine maps of β and NIR extinction of the small cloud IC 1396 W. The combination of star counts and colour excess results in the most reliable method to determine β. It is found that the use of the correct β map to transform colour excess values into extinction is fundamental for column density profile analysis of clouds. We describe how artificial photometric data, based on the model of stellar population synthesis of the Galaxy, can be used to estimate uncertainties and derive systematic effects of the extinction methods presented here. We find that all colour excess based extinction determination methods are subject to small but systematic offsets, which do not affect the star counting technique. These offsets occur since stars seen through a cloud do not represent the same population as stars in an extinction-free control field.     

A near-infrared survey of Miras and the distance to the Galactic Centre

We report the results of a near-infrared survey for long-period variables in a field of view of 20× 30 arcmin² towards the Galactic Centre (GC). We have detected 1364 variables, of which 348 are identified with those reported in Glass et al. We present a catalogue and photometric measurements for the detected variables and discuss their nature. We also establish a method for the simultaneous estimation of distances and extinctions using the period–luminosity relations for the JHK _s bands. Our method is applicable to Miras with periods in the range 100–350 d and mean magnitudes available in two or more filter bands. While J band means are often unavailable for our objects because of the large extinction, we estimated distances and extinctions for 143 Miras whose H - and   K _s  -band mean magnitudes are obtained. We find that most are located at the same distance to within our accuracy. Assuming that the barycentre of these Miras corresponds to the GC, we estimate its distance modulus to be  14.58 ± 0.02 (stat.) ± 0.11 (syst.) mag  , corresponding to  8.24 ± 0.08 (stat.) ± 0.42 (syst.) kpc  . We have assumed the distance modulus to the Large Magellanic Cloud to be 18.45 mag, and the uncertainty in this quantity is included in the above systematic error. We also discuss the large and highly variable extinction. Its value ranges from 1.5 mag to larger than 4 mag in     except towards the thicker dark nebulae and it varies in a complicated way with the line of sight. We have identified mid-infrared counterparts in the Spitzer /IRAC catalogue of Ramírez et al. for most of our variables and find that they follow rather narrow period–luminosity relations in the 3.6–8.0 μm wavelength range.     

ISO observations of 3–200 μm emission by three dust populations in an isolated local translucent cloud

We present isophot spectrophotometry of three positions within the isolated high-latitude cirrus cloud G 300.2−16.8, spanning from the near- to far-infrared (NIR to FIR). The positions exhibit contrasting emission spectrum contributions from the unidentified infrared bands (UIBs), very small grains (VSGs) and large classical grains, and both semi-empirical and numerical models are presented. At all three positions, the UIB spectrum shapes are found to be similar and the large grain emission may be fitted by an equilibrium temperature of  ∼17.5 K  . The energy requirements of both the observed emission spectrum and optical scattered light are shown to be satisfied by the incident local interstellar radiation field (ISRF). The FIR emissivity of dust in G 300.2−16.8 is found to be lower than in globules or dense clouds and is even lower than model predictions for dust in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). The results suggest physical differences in the ISM mixtures between positions within the cloud, possibly arising from grain coagulation processes.     

The Minispiral in the Galactic Center revisited

We present the results of a re-examination of a [Ne II] line emission data cube (λ 12.8μm) and discuss the kinematic structure of the inner 3×4 pc of the Galaxy. The quality of [Ne II] as a tracer of ionized gas is examined by comparing it to radio data. A three-dimensional representation of the data cube allows us to disentangle features which are projected onto the same location on the sky. A model of gas streams in different planes is fitted to the data. We find that most of the material is located in a main plane which itself is defined by the inner edge of the Circum-Nuclear Disk in the Galactic Center. Finally, we present a possible three-dimensional model of the gas streams.     

Near-infrared star counts as a test of a Galactic bar structure

We present survey data in the narrow-band L filter (nb L ), taken at UKIRT, for a total area of 277 arcmin², roughly equally divided between four regions at zero Galactic latitude and longitudes ±4.°3 and ±2.°3. The 80 per cent completeness level for these observations is at roughly magnitude 11.0. This magnitude limit, owing to the low coefficient for interstellar extinction at this wavelength ( A _{nb L} =0.047 A_V ), allows us to observe bulge giants. We match the nb L magnitudes with DENIS survey K magnitudes, and find 95 per cent of nb L sources are matched to K sources. Constructing colour–magnitude diagrams, we deredden the magnitudes and find evidence for a longitude-dependent asymmetry in the source counts. We find that there are ∼15 per cent and ∼5 per cent more sources at the negative longitude than at the corresponding positive longitude for the fields at ±4.°3 and ±2.°3, respectively. This is compared with the predictions of some Galactic bar models. We find an asymmetry in the expected sense, which favours gas dynamical models and the recent deconvolution of surface photometry data over earlier treatments of photometric data.