Galactic Latitude Dependence of Near-infrared Diffuse Galactic Light: Thermal Emission or Scattered Light?

Journal Article · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/AA906C· OSTI ID:22875648

Sano, K. ^[1]

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1. Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan)

Near-infrared (IR) diffuse Galactic light (DGL) consists of scattered light and thermal emission from interstellar dust grains illuminated by the interstellar radiation field (ISRF). At 1.25 and 2.2 μm, a recent observational study shows that intensity ratios of the DGL to interstellar 100 μm dust emission steeply decrease toward high Galactic latitudes (b). In this paper, we investigate the origin(s) of the b-dependence on the basis of models of thermal emission and scattered light. Combining a thermal emission model with the regional variation of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon abundance observed with Planck, we show that the contribution of the near-IR thermal emission component to the observed DGL is lower than ∼20%. We also examine the b-dependence of the scattered light, assuming a plane–parallel Galaxy with smooth distributions of the ISRF and dust density along the vertical direction, and assuming a scattering phase function according to a recently developed model of interstellar dust. We normalize the scattered light intensity to the 100 μm intensity corrected for deviation from the cosecant-b law according to the Planck observation. As the result, the present model that considers the b-dependence of dust and the ISRF properties can account for the observed b-dependence of the near-IR DGL. However, the uncertainty in the correction for the 100 μm emission is large, and other normalizing quantities may be appropriate for a more robust analysis of the DGL.

• OSTI ID: 22875648
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 849; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC DUST
DENSITY
DISTRIBUTION
ELEMENT ABUNDANCE
EMISSION
GALAXIES
ORIGIN
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
SCATTERING