The gas-to-extinction ratio and the gas distribution in the Galaxy
Bibliographic record
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 ${N_H}/{A_V}=(2.08\pm0.02)\times10^{21}{\rm H\, cm^{-2}\, mag^{-1}}$ 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 ${N_H}/{A_V}=(2.04\pm0.05)\times10^{21}{\rm H\, cm^{-2}\, mag^{-1}}$ for the 1st and 4th Galactic quadrants and ${N_H}/{A_V}=(2.09\pm0.03)\times10^{21}{\rm H\, cm^{-2}\, mag^{-1}}$ 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 $h=75.5\pm12.4\,{\rm pc}$ and a mid-plane density of $n_{H}(0)=1.11\pm0.15\,{\rm cm^{-3}}$, corresponding to a total gas surface density of ${\sum}_{gas}{\sim}7.0\,{M_{\bigodot}}\,{\rm pc^{-2}}$. 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 ${N_H}/{A_V}=(2.47\pm0.04)\times10^{21}{\rm H\, cm^{-2}\, mag^{-1}}$ 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.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".