Massive Acquisition of Ultraviolet Color Excess Information from GALEX and UVOT Bands

TL;DR

This paper develops an extensive ultraviolet color excess map using GALEX, UVOT, and Gaia data, revealing complex extinction behaviors and highlighting the limitations of single-parameter extinction laws across different wavelengths.

Contribution

It introduces a novel empirical method combining stellar parameters and machine learning to derive ultraviolet color excesses for millions of stars, significantly expanding existing extinction maps.

Findings

Ultraviolet color excess data increased tenfold for GALEX/near-UV.

Constructed ultraviolet extinction maps covering two-thirds of the sky.

Discovered differences in v\'s spatial distribution across ultraviolet and infrared data.

Abstract

This study employs stellar parameters from spectroscopic surveys and Zhang et al. based on Gaia XP spectra, along with photometric data from GALEX, UVOT, and Gaia, to obtain extensive ultraviolet color excess information for the relevant bands of GALEX and UVOT. By considering the impact of stellar parameters (\teff, \feh, and \logg) on intrinsic color indices, and utilizing the blue-edge method combined with a random forest algorithm, an empirical relationship between stellar parameters and intrinsic ultraviolet color indices is established. By combining observed color indices, the study derives color excesses for 11,624,802 and 65,531 stars in the GALEX/near-UV and far-UV bands, and 336,633, 137,739, and 253,271 stars in the UVOT/\uvwa, \uvmb, and \uvwb\ bands, constructing corresponding ultraviolet extinction maps. Notably, the color excess data for the GALEX/near-UV band shows a tenfold increase from previous results, with the extinction map covering approximately two-thirds of the sky at a resolution of 0.4$^{\circ}$. The typical uncertainties in the ultraviolet color excesses are 0.21 mag, 0.30 mag, 0.19 mag, 0.24 mag, and 0.21 mag for \enb, \efb, \ewab, \embb, and \ewbb, respectively. By comparing the spatial distributions of \rv\ derived from ultraviolet and Gaia optical band measurements with those obtained from infrared and optical data in previous works, it is evident that the \rv\ distributions based on the ultraviolet data show noticeable differences, with some regions even exhibiting opposite trends. This suggests that a single-parameter \rv\ extinction law may not be sufficient to simultaneously characterize the extinction behavior across infrared, optical, and ultraviolet bands.