A compilation of optical starlight polarization catalogs

TL;DR

This paper compiles a comprehensive optical polarization catalog from multiple sources, integrating Gaia distances to enhance three-dimensional interstellar medium studies, and proposes a standardized data format for future catalogs.

Contribution

It creates a large, unified polarization database from 81 publications, combining it with Gaia data, and introduces a standardized format for future stellar polarization catalogs.

Findings

Contains 55,742 polarization measurements

Links polarization data with Gaia distances for 42,482 stars

Provides three organized data products for accessibility

Abstract

Polarimetry of stars at optical and near-infrared wavelengths is an invaluable tool for tracing interstellar dust and magnetic fields. Recent studies have demonstrated the power of combining stellar polarimetry with distances from the Gaia mission, in order to gain accurate, three-dimensional information on the properties of the interstellar magnetic field and the dust distribution. However, access to optical polarization data is limited, as observations are conducted by different investigators, with different instruments and are made available in many separate publications. To enable a more widespread accessibility of optical polarimetry for studies of the interstellar medium, we compile a new catalog of stellar polarization measurements. The data are gathered from 81 separate publications spanning two decades since the previous, widely-used agglomeration of catalogs by Heiles (2000). The compilation contains a total of 55,742 measurements of stellar polarization. We combine this database with stellar distances based on the Gaia Early Data Release 3, thereby providing polarization and distance data for 42,482 unique stars. We provide three separate data products: an Extended Polarization Catalog (containing all polarization measurements), a Source Catalog (with distances and stellar identifications) and a Unique Source Polarization and Distance catalog (containing a subset of sources excluding duplicate measurements). We propose the use of a common tabular format for the publication of stellar polarization catalogs to facilitate accessibility and increase discoverability in the future.