We introduce a novel model to spectroscopically constrain the mid-infrared (MIR) extinction/attenuation curve from 3–17 μm, using polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission drawn from an AKARI–Spitzer extragalactic cross-archival data set. Currently proposed MIR extinction curves vary significantly in their slopes toward the near-infrared, and the variation in the strengths and shapes of the 9.7 μm and 18 μm silicate absorption features make MIR spectral modeling and interpretation challenging, particularly for heavily obscured galaxies. By adopting the basic premise that PAH bands have relatively consistent intrinsic ratios within dusty starbursting galaxies, we can, for the first time, empirically determine the overall shape of the MIR attenuation curve by measuring the differential attenuation at specific PAH wavelengths. Our attenuation model shows PAH emission in most (ultra)luminous infrared galaxies is unambiguously subjected to attenuation, and we find strong evidence that PAH bands undergo differential attenuation as obscuration increases. Compared to preexisting results, the MIR attenuation curve derived from the model favors relatively gray continuum absorption from 3–8 μm and silicate features with intermediate strength at 9.7 μm but with stronger than typical 18 μm opacity.
Spectroscopic Constraints on the Mid-infrared Attenuation Curve. I. Attenuation Model Using Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank A. Witt for valuable discussions. T.S.Y.L. extends special thanks for the hospitality provided by JAXA and acknowledges funding support from NASA grant JWST-ERS-01328. J.D.T.S. gratefully acknowledges support for this project from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement through Cottrell SEED Award No. 27852. E.P. acknowledges support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. M.I. is supported by JP21K03632. T.N. acknowledges the support by JSPS KAKENHI grants No. 21H04496 and 23H05441.
Facilities
AKARI - , Spitzer - Spitzer Space Telescope satellite
Software References
Astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018), Bokeh (Bokeh Development Team 2018), Matplotlib (Hunter 2007), Numpy (van der Walt et al. 2011), PAHFIT (Smith et al. 2007; Lai et al. 2020), SciPy (Virtanen et al. 2020)
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Additional details
- ISSN
- 1538-4357
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- JWST-ERS-01328
- Research Corporation for Science Advancement
- 27852
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- JP21K03632
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- 21H04496
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- 23H05441
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)