No Arabic abstract
A precise extinction law is a critical input when interpreting observations of highly reddened sources such as young star clusters and the Galactic Center (GC). We use Hubble Space Telescope observations of a region of moderate extinction and a region of high extinction to measure the optical and near-infrared extinction law (0.8 $mu$m -- 2.2 $mu$m). The moderate extinction region is the young massive cluster Westerlund 1 (Wd1; A$_{Ks} sim$ 0.6 mag), where 453 proper motion-selected main-sequence stars are used to measure the shape of the extinction law. To quantify the shape we define the parameter $mathcal{S}_{1/lambda}$, which behaves similarly to a color excess ratio but is continuous as a function of wavelength. The high extinction region is the GC (A$_{Ks} sim$ 2.5 mag), where 819 red clump stars are used to determine the normalization of the law. The best-fit extinction law is able to reproduce the Wd1 main sequence colors, which previous laws misestimate by 10%-30%. The law is inconsistent with a single power law, even when only the near-infrared filters are considered, and has A$_{F125W}$/A$_{Ks}$ and A$_{F814W}$/A$_{Ks}$ values that are 18% and 24% larger than the commonly used citet{Nishiyama:2009fc} law, respectively. Using the law we recalculate the Wd1 distance to be 3896 $pm$ 328 pc from published observations of eclipsing binary W13. This new extinction law should be used for highly reddened populations in the Milky Way, such as the Quintuplet cluster and Young Nuclear Cluster. A python code is provided to generate the law for future use.
We determine the slope of the near infrared extinction power law (A$_{lambda} propto lambda^{-alpha}$) for 8 regions of the Galaxy between l$sim27^{circ}$ and $sim100^{circ}$. UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey data are compared, in colour-colour space, with Galactic population synthesis model data reddened using a series of power laws and convolved through the UKIDSS filter profiles. Monte Carlo simulations allow us to determine the best fit value of $alpha$ and evaluate the uncertainty. All values are consistent with each other giving an average extinction power law of $alpha$=2.14$^{+0.04}_{-0.05}$. This is much steeper than most laws previously derived in the literature from colour excess ratios, which are typically between 1.6 and 1.8. We show that this discrepancy is due to an inappropriate choice of filter wavelength in conversion from colour excess ratios to $alpha$ and that effective rather than isophotal wavelengths are more appropriate. In addition, curved reddening tracks, which depend on spectral type and filter system, should be used instead of straight vectors.
Several methods exist to convert near-infrared (NIR) stellar observations into extinction maps. We present a new method based on NIR multiband observations. The method uses a discretised version of the distribution of intrinsic stellar colours. A number of variations of the basic method are tested, and the results are compared to NICER calculations. When photometric errors are large, the results are close to those of NICER method but some advantages can be seen when the distribution of intrinsic colours cannot be described well with a single covariance matrix. A priori information about relative column density variations at sub-beam scales can result in a significant increase in accuracy. The results may be further improved by considering the magnitude dependence of the intrinsic colours. Thus, the new methods are useful mostly when photometric errors are small, the distribution of intrinsic colours is well known, or one has prior knowledge of the small-scale structures.
We present optical photometric and spectroscopic results of supernova SN 2004ab, a highly reddened normal type Ia supernova. The total reddening is estimated as $E(B-V)$ = 1.70 $pm$ 0.05 mag. The intrinsic decline rate parameter, $Delta m_{15}(B)_text{true}$ is 1.27 $pm$ 0.05, and $B$-band absolute magnitude at maximum $M_{B}^{text{max}}$ is $-$19.31 $pm$ 0.25 mag. The host galaxy NGC 5054 is found to exhibit anomalous extinction with very low value of $R_V$ = 1.41 $pm$ 0.06 in the direction of SN 2004ab. Peak bolometric luminosity is derived as $log L_text{bol}^text{max}$ = 43.10 $pm$ 0.07 erg,s$^{-1}$. The photospheric velocity measured from absorption minimum of Si,{sc ii} $lambda$6355 line shows a velocity gradient of $dot{v}$ = 90 km,s$^{-1}$,d$^{-1}$, indicating that SN 2004ab is a member of the high velocity gradient (HVG) subgroup. The ratio of strength of Si,{sc ii} $lambda$5972 and $lambda$6355 absorption lines, $cal R$(Si,{sc ii}) is estimated as 0.37, while their pseudo equivalent widths suggest that SN 2004ab belongs to broad line (BL) type subgroup.
The dust extinction curve is a critical component of many observational programs and an important diagnostic of the physics of the interstellar medium. Here we present new measurements of the dust extinction curve and its variation towards tens of thousands of stars, a hundred-fold larger sample than in existing detailed studies. We use data from the APOGEE spectroscopic survey in combination with ten-band photometry from Pan-STARRS1, 2MASS, and WISE. We find that the extinction curve in the optical through infrared is well characterized by a one-parameter family of curves described by R(V). The extinction curve is more uniform than suggested in past works, with sigma(R(V)) = 0.18, and with less than one percent of sight lines having R(V) > 4. Our data and analysis have revealed two new aspects of Galactic extinction: first, we find significant, wide-area variations in R(V) throughout the Galactic plane. These variations are on scales much larger than individual molecular clouds, indicating that R(V) variations must trace much more than just grain growth in dense molecular environments. Indeed, we find no correlation between R(V) and dust column density up to E(B-V) ~ 2. Second, we discover a strong relationship between R(V) and the far-infrared dust emissivity.
A precise interstellar dust extinction law is critically important to interpret observations. There are two indicators of extinction: the color excess ratio (CER) and the relative extinction. Compared to the CER, the wavelength-dependent relative extinction is more challenging to be determined. In this work, we combine spectroscopic, astrometric, and photometric data to derive high-precision CERs and relative extinction from optical to mid-infrared (IR) bands. A group of 61,111 red clump (RC) stars are selected as tracers by stellar parameters from APOGEE survey. The multiband photometric data are collected from Gaia, APASS, SDSS, Pan-STARRS1, 2MASS, and WISE surveys. For the first time, we calibrate the curvature of CERs in determining CERs E(lambda-GRP)/E(GBP-GRP) from color excess--color excess diagrams. Through elaborate uncertainty analysis, we conclude that the precision of our CERs is significantly improved (sigma < 0.015). With parallaxes from Gaia DR2, we calculate the relative extinction A_GBP/A_GRP for 5051 RC stars. By combining the CERs with the A_GBP/A_GRP, the optical--mid-IR extinction A_lambda/A_GRP has been determined in a total of 21 bands. Given no bias toward any specific environment, our extinction law represents the average extinction law with the total-to-selective extinction ratio Rv=3.16+-0.15. Our observed extinction law supports an adjustment in parameters of the CCM Rv=3.1 curve, together with the near-IR power-law index alpha=2.07+-0.03. The relative extinction values of HST and JWST near-IR bandpasses are predicted in 2.5% precision. As the observed reddening/extinction tracks are curved, the curvature correction needs to be considered when applying extinction correction.