The EDIBLES Survey. VIII. Band profile alignment of diffuse interstellar bands
Amin Farhang
2022.02.17
Interstellar medium plays a crucial role in star formation, and astronomers, in various observational projects, seek to understand these environments and their constituent compositions to gain a better understanding of star formation. One of the methods to study these environments is by examining the diffusion of bands in the spectra received from them, as molecules or particles in the interstellar medium absorb light and cause the scattering of spectral bands. In this study, we used data from the ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey (EDIBLES). We searched for interstellar diffuse bands that exhibit strong correlations in both band strength and profile shape. This approach increases the likelihood that correlated diffuse bands belong to the same family and originate from the same carrier molecule. Extending previous work to analyze these data, we developed an algorithm to identify similar profiles in interstellar diffuse bands. We identified eight families of these bands that share similar strength and spectral shape, likely originating from a single molecule or molecular group. We also discovered four new diffuse bands in the visible range, which were added to the existing list of interstellar diffuse bands and may contribute to a better understanding of the compounds present in the interstellar medium in the future. A noteworthy case is the 6614 and 6521 Å bands, which were found to have similar triplet structures, with their intensity variations occurring almost simultaneously. This finding suggests that these two bands most likely originate from a common molecule in the interstellar medium. alternatetext
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