TY - JOUR
T1 - Extinction Ratios in the Inner Galaxy as Revealed by the VVV Survey
AU - Alonso-García, Javier
AU - Minniti, Dante
AU - Catelan, Márcio
AU - Contreras Ramos, Rodrigo
AU - Gonzalez, Oscar A.
AU - Hempel, Maren
AU - Lucas, Philip W.
AU - Saito, Roberto K.
AU - Valenti, Elena
AU - Zoccali, Manuela
N1 - Funding Information:
Astronomical Survey Unit. Support is provided by the BASAL Center for Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (CATA) through grant PFB-06/2007, and by the Ministry of Education through grant ANT-1656, and by the Ministry of Economy, Development, and Tourism’s Millennium Science Initiative through grant IC120009, awarded to the Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS). J.A.-G. acknowledges support from FONDECYT Iniciación 11150916, and from the Ministry of Education through grant ANT-1656. D.M., M.C., and M.Z. acknowledge support from FONDECYT Regular grants 1170121, 1171273, and 1150345, respectively. J.A.-G. and M.C. acknowledge additional support from CONICYT’s PCI program through grant DPI20140066. R.K.S. acknowledges support from CNPq/Brazil through projects 308968/2016-6 and 421687/2016-9.
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - Interstellar extinction toward the Galactic Center (GC) is large and significantly differential. Its reddening and dimming effects in red clump (RC) stars in the Galactic Bulge can be exploited to better constrain the extinction law toward the innermost Galaxy. By virtue of a deep and complete catalog of more than 30 million objects at |l| ≤ 2°.7 and |b| ≤ 1°.55 obtained from VVV survey observations, we apply the RC method to infer the selective-to-total extinction ratios in the Z, Y, J, H, and Ks broadband near-infrared filters. The measured values are smaller than previously reported, and are not constant, with mean values of, e.g., AKS /E(J - Ks) = 0.428 ± 0.005 ± 0.04 and AKS/ E(H Ks) = 1.104 ± 0.022 ± 0.2. We also obtain a ratio AZ:AY:AJ:AH:AKS of 7.74:5.38:3.30:1.88:1.0, implying extinction toward the GC to follow a distribution as a function of wavelength steeper than previously reported, consistent with a power law Aλ ∝ λ -2.47 in the near-infrared.
AB - Interstellar extinction toward the Galactic Center (GC) is large and significantly differential. Its reddening and dimming effects in red clump (RC) stars in the Galactic Bulge can be exploited to better constrain the extinction law toward the innermost Galaxy. By virtue of a deep and complete catalog of more than 30 million objects at |l| ≤ 2°.7 and |b| ≤ 1°.55 obtained from VVV survey observations, we apply the RC method to infer the selective-to-total extinction ratios in the Z, Y, J, H, and Ks broadband near-infrared filters. The measured values are smaller than previously reported, and are not constant, with mean values of, e.g., AKS /E(J - Ks) = 0.428 ± 0.005 ± 0.04 and AKS/ E(H Ks) = 1.104 ± 0.022 ± 0.2. We also obtain a ratio AZ:AY:AJ:AH:AKS of 7.74:5.38:3.30:1.88:1.0, implying extinction toward the GC to follow a distribution as a function of wavelength steeper than previously reported, consistent with a power law Aλ ∝ λ -2.47 in the near-infrared.
KW - dust, extinction
KW - Galaxy: center
KW - infrared: ISM
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032735374&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/aa92c3
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/aa92c3
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85032735374
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 849
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 1
M1 - L13
ER -