J/ApJ/770/39 BGPS. VIII. MIR kinematic distances (Ellsworth-Bowers+, 2013)
The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey.
VIII. A mid-infrared kinematic distance discrimination method.
Ellsworth-Bowers T.P., Glenn J., Rosolowsky E., Mairs S., Evans N.J. II,
Battersby C., Ginsburg A., Shirley Y.L., Bally J.
<Astrophys. J., 770, 39 (2013)>
=2013ApJ...770...39E 2013ApJ...770...39E
ADC_Keywords: Millimetric/submm sources ; Surveys ; Galactic plane
Keywords: dust, extinction; Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics; Galaxy: structure;
infrared: ISM; ISM: clouds; stars: formation
Abstract:
We present a new distance estimation method for dust-continuum-identified
molecular cloud clumps. Recent (sub-)millimeter Galactic plane surveys
have cataloged tens of thousands of these objects, plausible
precursors to stellar clusters, but detailed study of their physical
properties requires robust distance determinations. We derive Bayesian
distance probability density functions (DPDFs) for 770 objects from
the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey in the Galactic longitude range
7.5°≤l≤65°. The DPDF formalism is based on kinematic
distances, and uses any number of external data sets to place prior
distance probabilities to resolve the kinematic distance ambiguity
(KDA) for objects in the inner Galaxy. We present here priors related
to the mid-infrared absorption of dust in dense molecular regions and
the distribution of molecular gas in the Galactic disk. By assuming a
numerical model of Galactic mid-infrared emission and simple radiative
transfer, we match the morphology of (sub-)millimeter thermal dust
emission with mid-infrared absorption to compute a prior DPDF for
distance discrimination. Selecting objects first from (sub-)millimeter
source catalogs avoids a bias towards the darkest infrared dark clouds
(IRDCs) and extends the range of heliocentric distance probed by
mid-infrared extinction and includes lower-contrast sources. We derive
well-constrained KDA resolutions for 618 molecular cloud clumps, with
approximately 15% placed at or beyond the tangent distance. Objects
with mid-infrared contrast sufficient to be cataloged as IRDCs are
generally placed at the near kinematic distance. Distance comparisons
with Galactic Ring Survey KDA resolutions yield a 92% agreement. A
face-on view of the Milky Way using resolved distances reveals
sections of the Sagittarius and Scutum-Centaurus Arms. This
KDA-resolution method for large catalogs of sources through the
combination of (sub-)millimeter and mid-infrared observations of
molecular cloud clumps is generally applicable to other dust-continuum
Galactic plane surveys.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table3.dat 92 769 Observed and derived properties of Eight-Micron
Absorption Feature (EMAF)-selected BGPS
molecular cloud clumps
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See also:
J/A+A/568/A41 : ATLASGAL Compact Source Catalog: 280<l<60 (Urquhart+, 2014)
J/ApJS/209/2 : The BGPS. X. Dense molecular gas (Shirley+, 2013)
J/MNRAS/431/1587 : GRS/BGPS sources in Galactic Plane (Eden+, 2013)
J/MNRAS/422/3178 : Distances of 793 BGPS sources (Eden+, 2012)
J/A+A/526/A151 : Hi-Gal sources distance determination (Russeil+, 2011)
J/ApJ/741/110 : The BGPS. VII. Massive star-forming regions (Dunham+, 2011)
J/ApJ/731/90 : Mid-IR content of BGPS sources (Dunham+, 2011)
J/ApJS/195/14 : The BGPS. V. (Schlingman+, 2011)
J/ApJS/188/123 : The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. II. (Rosolowsky+, 2010)
J/ApJ/721/137 : The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) (Bally+, 2010)
J/ApJ/699/1153 : Kinematic dist. to GRS molecular clouds (Roman-Duval+, 2009)
J/ApJS/175/509 : Ammonia spectral atlas in Perseus (Rosolowsky+, 2008)
J/A+A/453/635 : Galactic Interstellar Extinction models (Marshall+, 2006)
J/ApJ/641/389 : Millimetric observations of IRDC cores (Rathborne+, 2006)
J/ApJ/638/293 : 1.1mm sources in the Perseus Molecular Cloud (Enoch+, 2006)
J/ApJ/626/195 : HI self-absorption (HISA) survey in the CGPS (Gibson+, 2005)
J/ApJS/154/553 : Inner galaxy massive star formation regions (Sewilo+, 2004)
http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/BOLOCAM_GPS/ : Bolocam GPS archive
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table3.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 4 I4 --- Seq [1326/6483] BGPS V1.0 Catalog Number
(Rosolowskys et al. 2010, J/ApJS/188/123;
in Simbad)
6- 11 F6.3 deg GLON Galactic Longitude of clump
13- 18 F6.3 deg GLAT Galactic Latitude of clump
20- 24 F5.3 Jy S40 [0.07/3.6] 40" flux density, corrected (1)
26- 30 F5.3 Jy e_S40 [0.03/0.6] 40" flux density error, corrected (1)
32- 36 F5.1 km/s Vlsr [8.8/120.2] LSR Velocity
38- 40 A3 --- r_Vlsr Velocity Reference(s) (2)
42- 45 F4.2 --- C [0/1] EMAF Contrast
47- 50 F4.2 --- e_C [0.01/0.3] EMAF Contrast error
52 A1 --- KDA [NFTU] Kinematic Distance Ambiguity Resolution:
N=near, F=far, T=tangent point, U=unconstrained
54- 57 F4.2 --- PML [0.5/1] Maximum-likelihood probability for dML (3)
59- 64 F6.2 kpc dML [0.8/14.3]? Maximum-likelihood distance dML
66- 71 F6.2 kpc E_dML [0.1/2]? Upper error in dML
73- 78 F6.2 kpc e_dML [0.1/2]? Lower error in dML
80- 85 F6.2 kpc [5.6/7.4]? Weighted-average distance
87- 92 F6.2 kpc e_ [0.6/1.2]? Weighted-average distance error
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Note (1): Flux densities corrected by the factor of 1.5±0.15
from Aguirre et al. (2011ApJS..192....4A 2011ApJS..192....4A).
Note (2): Reference as follows:
1 = HCO+ (Y.L. Shirley et al. 2013, Cat. J/ApJS/209/2);
2 = CS (Y. Shirley 2012, private communication);
3 = NH3 (Dunham et al. 2011, Cat. J/ApJ/741/110).
Note (3): Integrated posterior distance probability density function (DPDF)
on the dML side of the tangent point
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
References:
Aguirre et al. Paper I. 2011ApJS..192....4A 2011ApJS..192....4A
Rosolowsky et al. Paper II. 2010ApJS..188..123R 2010ApJS..188..123R Cat. J/ApJS/188/123
Dunham et al. Paper III. 2010ApJ...717.1157D 2010ApJ...717.1157D
Bally et al. 2010ApJ...721..137B 2010ApJ...721..137B Cat. J/ApJ/721/137
Schlingman et al. Paper V. 2011ApJS..195...14S 2011ApJS..195...14S Cat. J/ApJS/195/14
Dunham et al. Paper VII. 2011ApJ...741..110D 2011ApJ...741..110D Cat. J/ApJ/741/110
Ginsburg et al. Paper IX. 2013ApJS..208...14G 2013ApJS..208...14G
Shirley et al. Paper X. 2013ApJS..209....2S 2013ApJS..209....2S Cat. J/ApJS/209/2
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 08-Jan-2015