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Register a new userPlanck intermediate results. XVII. Emission of dust in the diffuse interstellar medium from the far-infrared to microwave frequencies
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The dust-HI correlation is used to characterize the emission properties of dust in the diffuse interstellar medium. We cross-correlate sky maps from Planck, WMAP, and DIRBE, at 17 frequencies from 23 to 3000 GHz, with the Parkes survey of the 21-cm line emission of neutral atomic hydrogen, over a contiguous area of 7500 deg$^2$ centred on the southern Galactic pole. Our analysis yields four specific results. (1) The dust temperature is observed to be anti-correlated with the dust emissivity and opacity. We interpret this result as evidence for dust evolution within the diffuse ISM. The mean dust opacity is measured to be $(7.1 pm 0.6) 10^{-27} cm^2/H times ( u/353, GHz)^{1.53pm0.03}$ for $100 < u <353$GHz. (2) We map the spectral index of dust emission at millimetre wavelengths, which is remarkably constant at $beta_{mm} = 1.51pm 0.13$. We compare it with the far infrared spectral index beta_FIR derived from greybody fits at higher frequencies, and find a systematic difference, $beta_{mm}-beta_{FIR} = -0.15$, which suggests that the dust SED flattens at $ u < 353,$GHz. (3) We present spectral fits of the microwave emission correlated with HI from 23 to 353 GHz, which separate dust and anomalous microwave emission. The flattening of the dust SED can be accounted for with an additional component with a blackbody spectrum, which accounts for $(26 pm 6)$% of the dust emission at 100 GHz and could represent magnetic dipole emission. Alternatively, it could account for an increasing contribution of carbon dust, or a flattening of the emissivity of amorphous silicates, at millimetre wavelengths. These interpretations make different predictions for the dust polarization SED. (4) We identify a Galactic contribution to the residuals of the dust-HI correlation, which we model with variations of the dust emissivity on angular scales smaller than that of our correlation analysis.
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This paper presents the first results of comparison of Planck along with IRAS data with Green Bank Telescope 21-cm observations in 14 fields covering more than 800 square degrees at high Galactic latitude. Galactic dust emission for fields with average HI column density lower than 2 x 10^20 cm^-2 is well correlated with 21-cm emission. The residual emission in these fields, once the HI-correlated emission is removed, is consistent with the expected statistical properties of the cosmic infrared background fluctuations. Fields with larger column densities show significant excess dust emission compared to the HI column density. Regions of excess lie in organized structures that suggest the presence of hydrogen in molecular form, though they are not always correlated with CO emission. Dust emission from intermediate-velocity clouds is detected with high significance. Its spectral properties are consistent with, compared to the local ISM values, significantly hotter dust (T~20 K), lower sub-millimeter dust opacity, and a relative abundance of very small grains to large grains about four times higher. These results are compatible with expectations for clouds that are part of the Galactic fountain in which there is dust shattering and fragmentation. Correlated dust emission in HVCs is not detected; the average of the 99.9% confidence upper limits to the emissivity is 0.15 times the local ISM value at 857 and 3000 GHz, in accordance with gas phase evidence for lower metallicity and depletion in these clouds. Unexpected anti-correlated variations of the dust temperature and emission cross-section per H atom are identified in the local ISM and IVCs, a trend that continues into molecular environments. This suggests that dust growth through aggregation, seen in molecular clouds, is active much earlier in the cloud condensation and star formation processes.
The Planck-HFI all-sky survey from 353 to 857GHz combined with the 100 microns IRAS show that the dust properties vary in the diffuse ISM at high Galactic latitude (1e19<NH<2.5e20 H/cm2). Our aim is to explain these variations with changes in the ISM properties and grain evolution. Our starting point is the latest core-mantle dust model. It consists of small aromatic-rich carbon grains, larger amorphous carbon grains with aliphatic-rich cores and aromatic-rich mantles, and amorphous silicates with Fe/FeS nano-inclusions covered by aromatic-rich carbon mantles. We explore whether variations in the radiation field or in the gas density distribution in the diffuse ISM could explain the observations. The dust properties are also varied in terms of mantle thickness, Fe/FeS inclusions, carbon abundance, and size distribution. Variations in the radiation field intensity and gas density distribution cannot explain the observed variations but radiation fields harder than the standard ISRF may participate in creating part of them. We further show that variations in the grain mantle thickness coupled with changes in the grain size distribution can reproduce most of the observations. We put a limit on the mantle thickness of the silicates (~10-15nm), and find that aromatic-rich mantles are needed for the carbon grains (at least 5-7.5nm thick). We also find that changes in the carbon abundance in the grains could explain part of the observed variations. Finally, we show that varying the composition of Fe/FeS inclusions in the silicates cannot account for the variations. With small variations in the dust properties, we are able to explain most of the variations in the dust emission observed by Planck-HFI in the diffuse ISM. We also find that the small realistic changes in the dust properties that we consider almost perfectly match the anti-correlation and scatter in the observed beta-T relation.
The quest for a B-mode imprint from primordial gravity waves on the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) requires the characterization of foreground polarization from Galactic dust. We present a statistical study of the filamentary structure of the 353 GHz Planck Stokes maps at high Galactic latitude, relevant to the study of dust emission as a polarized foreground to the CMB. We filter the intensity and polarization maps to isolate filaments in the range of angular scales where the power asymmetry between E-modes and B-modes is observed. Using the Smoothed Hessian Major Axis Filament Finder, we identify 259 filaments at high Galactic latitude, with lengths larger or equal to 2deg (corresponding to 3.5 pc in length for a typical distance of 100 pc). These filaments show a preferred orientation parallel to the magnetic field projected onto the plane of the sky, derived from their polarization angles. We present mean maps of the filaments in Stokes I, Q, U, E, and B, computed by stacking individual images rotated to align the orientations of the filaments. Combining the stacked images and the histogram of relative orientations, we estimate the mean polarization fraction of the filaments to be 11 %. Furthermore, we show that the correlation between the filaments and the magnetic field orientations may account for the E and B asymmetry and the $C_{ell}^{TE}/C_{ell}^{EE}$ ratio, reported in the power spectra analysis of the Planck 353 GHz polarization maps. Future models of the dust foreground for CMB polarization studies will need to take into account the observed correlation between the dust polarization and the structure of interstellar matter.
We present a model for the diffuse interstellar dust that explains the observed wavelength-dependence of extinction, emission, linear and circular polarisation of light. The model is set-up with a small number of parameters. It consists of a mixture of amorphous carbon and silicate grains with sizes from the molecular domain of 0.5 up to about 500nm. Dust grains with radii larger than 6nm are spheroids. Spheroidal dust particles have a factor 1.5 - 3 larger absorption cross section in the far IR than spherical grains of the same volume. Mass estimates derived from submillimeter observations that ignore this effect are overestimated by the same amount. In the presence of a magnetic field, spheroids may be partly aligned and polarise light. We find that polarisation spectra help to determine the upper particle radius of the otherwise rather unconstrained dust size distribution. Stochastically heated small grains of graphite, silicates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are included. We tabulate parameters for PAH emission bands in various environments. They show a trend with the hardness of the radiation field that can be explained by the ionisation state or hydrogenation coverage of the molecules. For each dust component its relative weight is specified, so that absolute element abundances are not direct input parameters. The model is confronted with the average properties of the Milky Way, which seems to represent dust in the solar neighbourhood. It is then applied to four specific sight lines including the reflection nebula NGC2023. For these sight lines, we present linear and circular spectro-polarimetric observations obtained with FORS/VLT. Using prolate rather than oblate grains gives a better fit to observed spectra; the axial ratio of the spheroids is typically two and aligned silicates are the dominant contributor to the polarisation.
This paper presents the large-scale polarized sky as seen by Planck HFI at 353 GHz, which is the most sensitive Planck channel for dust polarization. We construct and analyse large-scale maps of dust polarization fraction and polarization direction, while taking account of noise bias and possible systematic effects. We find that the maximum observed dust polarization fraction is high (pmax > 18%), in particular in some of the intermediate dust column density (AV < 1mag) regions. There is a systematic decrease in the dust polarization fraction with increasing dust column density, and we interpret the features of this correlation in light of both radiative grain alignment predictions and fluctuations in the magnetic field orientation. We also characterize the spatial structure of the polarization angle using the angle dispersion function and find that, in nearby fields at intermediate latitudes, the polarization angle is ordered over extended areas that are separated by filamentary structures, which appear as interfaces where the magnetic field sky projection rotates abruptly without apparent variations in the dust column density. The polarization fraction is found to be anti-correlated with the dispersion of the polarization angle, implying that the variations are likely due to fluctuations in the 3D magnetic field orientation along the line of sight sampling the diffuse interstellar medium.We also compare the dust emission with the polarized synchrotron emission measured with the Planck LFI, with low-frequency radio data, and with Faraday rotation measurements of extragalactic sources. The two polarized components are globally similar in structure along the plane and notably in the Fan and North Polar Spur regions. A detailed comparison of these three tracers shows, however, that dust and cosmic rays generally sample different parts of the line of sight and confirms that much of the variation observed in the Planck data is due to the 3D structure of the magnetic field.
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