Catherine Zucker edited sectionAnalysis_of_N.tex  about 9 years ago

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\section{Analysis of New Bones}  BC\_18.88-0.09 is our strongest bone, in that it is highly elongated (0.8 degrees or 52 pc) (0.7 degrees, 45 pc, with an aspect ratio of 140:1)  and \textit{exactly} along a previously-claimed spiral arm trace in p-p-v space, although its orientation makes it less elongated than Nessie on the sky. In figure \ref{fig:Candid5_pos_vel} we show a p-v diagram in the longitude range of BC\_18.88-0.09 and overlay the \citet{Dame_2011} global log-fit to CO for the Scutum-Centaurus arm. We see that the HOPS, BGPS, and GRS-determined velocities associated with filament 5 are highly correlated with this global-log fit, suggesting that BC\_18.88-0.09 is marking a "spine" of the Scutum-Centaurus arm in this longitude range. Moreover, BC\_18.88-0.09 also lies along a CO peak in longitude-latitude space, as evident in figure \ref{fig:Candid5_pos_pos}. By overlaying a trace of the mid-IR extinction feature of filament 5 on a plane of the sky map (integrated in Scutum-Centaurus's velocity range in the region around filament 5) we see that BC\_18.88-0.09 lies in the center of the most intense CO emission. Finally, figure \ref{fig:Candid5_with_tilt} shows that BC\_18.88-0.09 lies within $\approx$ 10 pc of the true physical mid-plane. All these figures taken together indicate that BC\_18.88-0.09 is Nessie's counterpart in the first quadrant, suggesting that Nessie is not a curiosity, but one of several bones that trace significant spiral features. Our study is not the first to look for long filaments associated with spiral structure. \citet{Ragan_2014} and Wang et al. (2015) have undertaken similar studies. However, ours is the first study to \textit{specifically look for bones in regions we are most likely to find them, that is, elongated along the galactic plane}. They identify these filaments using three criteria: morphology, temperature, and velocity coherence.