Mapping Local Interstellar Medium With Diffuse Interstellar Bands

TL;DR

This study maps the distribution of diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) using archival data, revealing structures and regional variations in their correlation with star properties, which enhances understanding of the local interstellar medium's complexity.

Contribution

It provides new detailed maps of DIBs and identifies regional variations and structures in their distribution, improving the understanding of the local interstellar medium.

Findings

Identified a structure in DIB equivalent widths around x=170 pc.

Observed regional differences in correlation with color excess.

Detected lower DIB strengths in the 250°-300° Galactic longitude region.

Abstract

With the use of the data from archives, we studied the correlations between the equivalent widths of four diffuse interstellar bands (4430$\r{A}$, 5780$\r{A}$, 5797$\r{A}$, 6284$\r{A}$) and properties of the target stars (colour excess values, distances and Galactic coordinates). Many different plots of the diffuse interstellar bands and their maps were produced and further analysed. There appears to be a structure in the plot of equivalent widths of 5780$\r{A}$ DIB (and 6284$\r{A}$ DIB) against the Galactic $x$-coordinate. The structure is well defined below $\sim150$ m$\r{A}$ and within $|x|<250$ pc, peaking around $x=170$ pc. We argue that the origin of this structure is not a statistical fluctuation. Splitting the data in the Galactic longitude into several subregions improves or lowers the well known linear relation between the equivalent widths and the colour excess, which was expected. However, some of the lines of sight display drastically different behaviour. The region within $150^\circ<l<200^\circ$ shows scatter in the correlation plots with the colour excess for all of the four bands with correlation coefficients $\textrm{R}<0.58$. We suspect that the variation of physical conditions in the nearby molecular clouds could be responsible. Finally, the area $250^\circ<l<300^\circ$ displays (from the statistical point of view) significantly lower values of equivalent widths than the other regions -- this tells us that there is either a significant underabundance of carriers (when compared with the other regions) or that this has to be a result of an observational bias.