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Diffuse Interstellar Bands Toward Hd 62542 Abstract Draft version December 3, 2003 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 3/25/03 DIFFUSE INTERSTELLAR BANDS TOWARD HD 62542 Mat´ e´ Ad´ amkovics,´ 1 Geoffrey A. Blake, 2 and Benjamin J. McCall1,3 Draft version December 3, 2003 ABSTRACT Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) have been observed along the peculiar translucent line of sight toward HD 62542. Of the 15 DIBs observed, 10 are relatively weak features known to correlate with the carbon chain molecules C2 and C3. The DIBs λλ5780 and 5797 are detected but are significantly weaker than towards other lines of sight with similar reddening. The other commonly observed DIBs such as λλ4430, 6270, and 6284 remain noticeably absent. We discuss how these observations support the suggestion that the line of sight toward HD 62542 crosses the core of a diffuse cloud. A comparison of CH, CN, C2, and C3 column densities and C2 DIB strengths toward HD 62542, HD 204827, and HD 172028 suggests that the line of sight toward HD 204827 also passes through a diffuse cloud core. Subject headings: astrochemistry — ISM: lines and bands — ISM:molecules 1. introduction of atomic hydrogen, N(H i). Recently, a broad DIB sur- A great deal of the fascination with the diffuse inter- vey at Apache Point Observatory has shown that a group stellar bands (DIBs) arises from their ubiquity towards of 18 relatively weak DIBs correlate with C2 (Thorburn lightly reddened sightlines and the challenge of identify- et al. 2003), which also correlates with C3 (Oka et al. ing their molecular carriers (for recent reviews see Her- 2003; Ad´amkovics´ et al. 2003). These results provide big (1995), Tielens & Snow (1995) and Snow (2001)). support for the suggestion that some DIBs arise from car- Much like the total column densities of the interstellar bon chain molecules (Douglas 1977) or molecules closely molecules C2,C3, CN and CH, the strengths (i.e. equiv- chemically related to carbon chains. alent widths, Wλ(DIB)) of individual DIBs generally in- In diffuse clouds the H i concentration falls towards crease with extinction yet can be highly variable among the center of the cloud as the density increases and H i is sightlines with the same color excess, E(B − V ). This converted to H2. Likewise, one would expect λ5780 to be- indicates that the strengths of these features relative to come weaker toward the center of a diffuse cloud, so that one another are sensitive to some varying physical con- lines of sight probing the dense regions of diffuse clouds dition(s) in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) in ad- will have weaker λ5780 for a given color excess. This dition to simply the total amount of material along the was first emphasized by Snow & Cohen (1974) and has line of sight. An understanding of the mechanisms that been studied more thoroughly for λλ5780, 5797, 5850, determine the relative line strengths of the DIBs may 6196, 6203, 6269, 6284 in the Taurus clouds (Adamson turn the enigmatic DIBs into a widely applicable probe et al. 1994, 1991). The propensity for increased DIB con- of diffuse ISM properties. centration in the outer regions of diffuse clouds—known Correlations between individual DIB strengths have as the ‘skin’ phenomenon—is the opposite of the mod- been used to identify features that respond similarly to eled behavior for small carbon species such as C2, CH, differences in the diffuse cloud environment (see reviews and CN (van Dishoeck & Black 1986), which increase in above and references therein). The fundamental idea is concentration toward the center of clouds. that any group of features arising from a particular car- The line of sight toward HD 62542 offers a unique rier, or set of chemically related carriers, must maintain opportunity to study the molecular abundances in the the same relative intensities in all lines of sight. Identify- dense (n∼500 cm−3, Gredel et al. (1993)) central re- ing such correlating subsets of DIBs provides a valuable gion of a diffuse cloud. The diffuse cloud toward this spectroscopic constraint on the identity of the carrier(s). star has apparently been stripped of the lower density This method has the advantage of directly comparing outer layer(s)—that is, its ‘skin’—by stellar winds and DIB equivalent widths without the potentially compli- radiation pressure (Cardelli et al. 1990). Evidence for cating factor of normalizing individual DIB equivalent the missing outer layer(s) includes the unexpectedly high widths by some measure of the extinction along any par- molecular abundances for a line of sight with only 1 mag ticular line of sight. of visual extinction (Cardelli et al. 1990), the extreme There have been a few successful measurements of the far-UV extinction (Cardelli & Savage 1988), and recent correlation between DIB strengths and the column den- observations showing that the DIBs are conspicuously sity of identified species. Herbig (1993) showed that missing from this sightline (Snow et al. 2002). Further Wλ(5780) depends strongly on the total column density intriguing characteristics of the cloud toward HD 62542 include the very small column of CH+ (Cardelli et al. 1 Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1990; Gredel et al. 1993) and the unusually high ratio of CA, 94720; [email protected] ´ 2 Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences and Division of N(C3)/N(C2)(Ad´amkovics et al. 2003). Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, M/S 150-21, California In- One would expect that unlike the generally strong stitute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125. DIBs (e.g. λλ5780, 5797, and 6284), those that corre- 3 Astronomy Department, 601 Campbell Hall, University of Cal- late with carbon chain molecules (Thorburn et al. 2003) ifornia, Berkeley, CA 94720 2 AD´ AMKOVICS´ ET AL. would be located predominantly in the central regions Table 1. Measurements of HD 62542, HD 204827 and HD 172028 of diffuse clouds (diffuse cloud ‘cores’) where the C2 concentration increases. The C2 DIBs should therefore be observable in a sightline with a diffuse cloud core. 62542 204827 172028a 204827b Here we use the high sensitivity (S/N∼700-1000) spec- no ‘core’ tra of HD 62542 obtained during our measurements of C3 Type B5 V B0 V B2 V ··· (Ad´amkovics´ et al. 2003) to test this assumption, while V 8.04 7.94 7.83 ··· E(B−V ) 0.35 1.11 0.79 0.76 searching for the unusually weak DIBs in this sight line. AV 0.99 2.62 2.20 1.62 We report the detection toward HD 62542 of 10 of the 18 DIBs that correlate with C2 and C3, as well as the DIBs C2 DIB Equivalent Widths (mA)˚ λλ4727, 5494, 5544, 5780, and 5797. 4363.77 5.5 ± 1 15 ± 1 ··· 9.5 ± 1.4 2. observations and results 4726.27 blend blend ······ 4734.73 5 ± 0.5 17.8 ± 1 12.3 ± 0.8 12.8 ± 1.1 Observations were performed using the High Resolu- 4963.96 6 ± 1 50.2 ± 2 50 ± 1 44.2 ± 2.2 tion Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) (Vogt et al. 1994) on 4969.12 3.7 ± 1.5 11.8 ± 2 ··· 8.1 ± 2.5 the 10-m Keck I telescope atop Mauna Kea on 2002 De- 4979.58 2.6 ± 0.5 14.7 ± 1 ··· 12.1 ± 1.1 4984.73 5.6 ± 0.5 30.8 ± 1 26 ± 1 25.2 ± 1.1 cember 14, with details presented in Ad´amkovics´ et al. 5003.62 <2 16.9 ± 1 ··· 15.9 ± 2.2 (2003). Briefly, spectra in the 3985-6420 A˚ range were 5170.44 <2 11.3 ± 1 ··· 10.3 ± 2.2 recorded with small gaps in the coverage starting at 5175.99 3.7 ± 0.5 32.4 ± 1 23 ± 2 28.8 ± 1.1 5418.91 4.5 ± 0.5 52.6 ± 2 ··· 48.1 ± 1.6 ∼5000 A˚ and increasing to ∼30 A˚ at 6315 A.˚ The re- 5512.62 <2 24.0 ± 1 26 ± 1 23.0 ± 2.2 solving power was R∼67,000 and the reduced data have 5541.77 <2 25.3 ± 2 ··· 24.3 ± 2.8 a dispersion ranging from d=0.0287 A˚ pixel−1 at 4050 A˚ 5546.46 <2 17.2 ± 1 ··· 16.2 ± 2.2 ˚ −1 ˚ 5762.74 <2 18.3 ± 2 ··· 17.3 ± 2.8 to d=0.0431 A pixel at 6265 A. 5769.08 3.3 ± 1 17.6 ± 1 17 ± 1.5 14.3 ± 1.4 The data were reduced using standard procedures in 5793.14 <2 22.4 ± 2 ··· 21.4 ± 2.8 the echelle package in NOAO’s Image Reduction and Analysis Facility (IRAF). Calibration and target images Other DIB Equivalent Widths (mA)˚ were bias corrected and combined, before target images were flat fielded and echelle apertures extracted. Wave- 4727.06 blend blend ······ length calibration was performed with standard routines 5494.14 5.4 ± 1 22.9 ± 1 ··· 17.5 ± 1.4 5544.97 4.1 ± 1 25.8 ± 1 26 ± 1 21.7 ± 1.4 using spectra of a ThAr lamp, and one-dimensional spec- 5766.25 <2 28 ± 1 ··· 27.0 ± 2.2 tra of the targets were extracted for further analysis. 5780.59 52.8 ± 4 266 ± 5 256 ± 8 213 ± 6 Figure 1 shows the spectrum of HD 62542 in the regions 5797.11 8.5 ± 1 158 ± 4 217 ± 5 150 ± 4 6270.06 <2 80 ± 3 45 ± 5 79.0 ± 3.6 where DIBs have been detected, along with the spectrum 6284.31 <8 518 ± 60 450 ± 60 514 ± 61 of HD 204827 for comparison. Equivalent widths are measured by numerical integration and are reported in Column Densities (×1012cm−2) Table 1 with 1σ errors and 2σ upper limits.
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