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Title: The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Galactic Dust Structure and the Cosmic PAH Background in Cross-correlation with WISE
Abstract We present a cross-correlation analysis between 1 resolution total intensity and polarization observations from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) at 150 and 220 GHz and 15″ mid-infrared photometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) over 107 12.°5 × 12.°5 patches of sky. We detect a spatially isotropic signal in the WISE×ACTTTcross-power spectrum at 30σsignificance that we interpret as the correlation between the cosmic infrared background at ACT frequencies and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission from galaxies in WISE, i.e., the cosmic PAH background. Within the Milky Way, the Galactic dustTTspectra are generally well described by power laws inℓover the range 103<ℓ< 104, but there is evidence both for variability in the power-law index and for non-power-law behavior in some regions. We measure a positive correlation between WISE total intensity and ACTE-mode polarization at 1000 <ℓ≲ 6000 at >3σin each of 35 distinct ∼100 deg2regions of the sky, suggesting that alignment between Galactic density structures and the local magnetic field persists to subparsec physical scales in these regions. The distribution ofTEamplitudes in thisℓrange across all 107 regions is biased to positive values, while there is no evidence for such a bias in theTBspectra. This work constitutes the highest-ℓmeasurements of the Galactic dustTEspectrum to date and indicates that cross-correlation with high-resolution mid-infrared measurements of dust emission is a promising tool for constraining the spatial statistics of dust emission at millimeter wavelengths.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2106607
PAR ID:
10483840
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume:
960
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0004-637X
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: Article No. 96
Size(s):
Article No. 96
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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