The gas-to-extinction ratio and the gas distribution in the Galaxy

Abstract

We investigate the relation between the optical extinction ($A_V$) and the hydrogen column density ($N_H$) determined from X-ray observations of a large sample of Galactic sightlines toward 35 supernova remnants, 6 planetary nebulae, and 70 X-ray binaries for which $N_H$ was determined in the literature with solar abundances. We derive an average ratio of $N_H/A_V=(2.08\pm 0.02)\times 10^{21}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}\mathrm{ma}{\mathrm{g}}^{-1}$ for the whole Galaxy. We find no correlation between $N_H/A_V$ and the number density of hydrogen, the distance away from the Galactic centre, and the distance above or below the Galactic plane. The $N_H/A_V$ ratio is generally invariant across the Galaxy, with $N_H/A_V=(2.04\pm 0.05)\times 10^{21}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}\mathrm{ma}{\mathrm{g}}^{-1}$ for the 1st and 4th Galactic quadrants and $N_H/A_V=(2.09\pm 0.03)\times 10^{21}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}\mathrm{ma}{\mathrm{g}}^{-1}$ for the 2nd and 3rd Galactic quadrants. We also explore the distribution of hydrogen in the Galaxy by enlarging our sample with additional 74 supernova remnants for which both $N_H$ and distances are known. We find that, between the Galactic radius of 2 kpc to 10 kpc, the vertical distribution of hydrogen can be roughly described by a Gaussian function with a scale height of $h=75.5\pm 12.4\mathrm{pc}$ and a mid-plane density of $n_H(0)=1.11\pm 0.15\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-3}$, corresponding to a total gas surface density of ${\sum }_{gas}\sim 7.0M_{⨀}\mathrm{p}{\mathrm{c}}^{-2}$. We also compile $N_H$ from 19 supernova remnants and 29 X-ray binaries for which $N_H$ was determined with subsolar abundances. We obtain $N_H/A_V=(2.47\pm 0.04)\times 10^{21}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}\mathrm{ma}{\mathrm{g}}^{-1}$ which exceeds that derived with solar abundances by $\sim$20%. We suggest that in future studies one may simply scale $N_H$ derived from subsolar abundances by a factor of $\sim$1.2 when converting to $N_H$ of solar abundances.

32 pages, 10 figures, 7 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS

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