On the Properties of the Galactic Dust Layer within 700 pc of the Sun

Abstract

We compare the spatial stellar color variations with our three-dimensional analytical model of the spatial dust distribution to refine the properties of the dust layer in Galactic solar neighborhoods. We use a complete sample of 93 992 clump giants with a small admixture of branch giants from the Gaia DR2 catalogue in a spatial cylinder with a radius of 700 pc around the Sun extending to |Z| = 1800 pc along the Galactic Z axis. Accurate parallaxes and photometry of these stars in the Gaia DR2 G_RP and WISE W3 bands have allowed the spatial G_RP - W₃ color variations to be used to calculate the model parameters and two characteristics of the sample, the mode of the dereddened color (G_RP - W3)₀ of the giant clump and the linear change of this mode with coordinate |Z|. As a result, an improved version of the three-dimensional model first proposed by Gontcharov (2009b) has been obtained. As in the previous version, the model suggests two dust layers, along the Galactic equator and in the Gould Belt, that intersect near the Sun at an angle of 18° ± 2°. In contrast to the previous version of the model with a midplane of the Gould Belt dust layer in the form of a circle with the center at the Sun, in the new version this midplane is an ellipse decentered relative to the Sun. A scale height of 170 ± 40 pc has been found for both dust layers. A rather large reddening E(G_RP - W3) = 0.16 ± 0.02 through half of the Galactic dust layer above or below the Sun has been found for giants far from the Galactic plane (|Z| > 600 pc). This can be explained by a possible difference between the extinction law far from the Galactic plane and the commonly adopted law by Cardelli et al. (1989) with R_V = 3.1. The modes of the absolute magnitude M_W3 = -1.70 ± 0.02 and the dereddened color (G_RP - W3)₀ = (1.43 ± 0.01) - (0.020 ± 0.007)|Z|, where Z is expressed in kpc, have been calculated for the giant clump near the Sun. These estimates are consistent with the estimates from the theoretical PARSEC and MIST isochrones for a sample dominated by giants with an age of 2 Gyr and metallicity [Fe/H] = -0.1 in agreement with the TRILEGAL stellar population model. The dispersions of the quantities under consideration have allowed the natural small-scale density fluctuations of the dust medium relative to the mean reddening calculated from the model to be characterized. These fluctuations make a major contribution to the uncertainty in the reddening. Because of them, the reddening of a specific star can differ from the model reddening by a random value that decreases from 80 to <20% of the model reddening when passing from low latitudes far from the Sun to the remaining space.