Catherine Zucker edited sectionMethdology_To.tex  almost 9 years ago

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\section{Methodology}  \subsection{Visual Search}  To search for more bones, we looked for them around where they are expected to lie in $l,b,v$ space, according to our current understanding of the Milky Way's structure. We began by calculating the expected $l,b$ paths of Galactic arms using a log-spiral approximation as described in recent literature \cite{Dame_2011,Vallee_2008} and assuming a 25 pc height above the plane for the Sun \citep[see][and references therein]{Goodman_2014}. The predicted positions of the Galactic arms (Scutum-Centaurus, Carina-Sagittarius, Norma-Cygnus, and Perseus) were then overlain on Spitzer GLIMPSE/MIPSGAL \citep{Benjamin_2003,Churchwell_2009} images in World Wide Telescope (WWT)---a tool that facilitates easy visualization of several layers of data at scales from the full sky down to the highest-resolution details. We restricted our initial search to the MIPSGAL footprint ($|l|<62^\circ, |b|<1^\circ$), with particular attention given to the region $-30 $-30^\circ  as the Scutum-Centaurus arm (the closest major spiral arm from our vantage point) has tangent points at these longitudes. Panning along the full Spitzer/MIPSGAL Survey in WWT, we searched for largely continuous, filamentary, extinction features near and roughly parallel to the Galactic mid-plane, where all of the overlain arm traces lie. This visual inspection yielded about fifteen initial bone candidates. A video showing how this search worked in WWT is available \href{http://tinyurl.com/morenessies}{on YouTube}, and the original WWT Tour, of which the video shows a capture, is available at the \href{http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/29934}{Bones of the Milky Way Dataverse}. \subsection{Probing Velocity Structure}  For features that appear associated with spiral arms on the 2-D plane of the sky, radial velocity data is needed to establish whether 3-D association with a spiral feature is likely. Any good bone candidate must have similar line-of-sight velocities along its full length (i.e. no abrupt shifts in velocity of more than 3 km/s per 10 pc along the bone), and more importantly, the measured radial velocities should be very close to those predicted by the Milky Way's rotation curve for arms at a known distance. To probe the velocity structure of the initial bone candidates identified in WWT, we employed radial velocity data from five separate radio surveys: HOPS \citep{Purcell_2012,Walsh_2011}, MALT90 \citep{Foster_2011,Jackson_2013}, BGPS spectral-line follow-up \cite{Schlingman_2011,Shirley_2013,Ellsworth_Bowers_2013}, GRS \citep{Jackson_2006} and ThrUMMS \cite{Barnes_2011}. The HOPS, MALT90, and BGPS surveys are all geared towards probing dense regions hosting the early stages of high mass star formation. We utilize $\textrm{NH}_3$ emission from HOPS, $\mathrm{N_2H^{+}}$ from MALT90, and $\textrm{HCO}^{+}$ from BGPS. All three of these lines trace dense molecular gas ($\sim 10^{4}\textrm{ cm}^{-3}$), and are often found in dense, cool clouds with temperatures less than 100 K \citep{Purcell_2012,Shirley_2013}. As infrared dark clouds tend to harbor cool, high density clumps of gas which fuel the formation of massive stars, all three of these data sets contain spectra for hundreds of regions within the longitude range of the potential Galactic bones. To complement these high density gas tracers, we probe the puffier envelopes ($\sim 10^{2}\textrm{ cm}^{-3}$) surrounding these bones using high resolution $^{13}\rm{CO}$ data from the GRS and ThrUMMS survey.