Weighing the Local Interstellar Medium using Gamma Rays and Dust

Abstract

Cold gas forms a significant mass fraction of the Milky Way disk, but is its most uncertain baryonic component. The density and distribution of cold gas is of critical importance for Milky Way dynamics, as well as models of stellar and galactic evolution. Previous studies have used correlations between gas and dust to obtain high-resolution measurements of cold gas, but with large normalization uncertainties. We present a novel approach that uses Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray data to measure the total gas density, achieving a similar precision as previous works, but with independent systematic uncertainties. Notably, our results have sufficient precision to probe the range of results obtained by current world-leading experiments.

5 pages, 3 figures; appendix adds 13 pages, 6 figures; in review for PRL

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