Statistics
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21541515j&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #415.15; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.263
Statistics
Scientific paper
Despite its importance to interstellar chemistry, particularly as one of the dominant elements of interstellar dust, the gas-phase abundance of silicon is somewhat poorly known. Previous surveys of interstellar silicon have been based mostly on medium-resolution IUE spectroscopy of saturated absorption lines or the weak line of Si II at 2335 angstroms. Derivation of Si II column densities is preferable through the latter method, but there have only been 7 interstellar absorption detections of this line. Therefore, previous surveys are uncertain due to either potential systematic issues or limited statistics. We explore silicon abundances through archival HST/STIS data of 46 lines of sight. Many of these lines of sight use the higher-resolution echelle gratings of STIS and the data covers several absorption lines suitable for simultaneous modeling. We use stellar models to obtain a more accurate representation of the continuum in order to properly model the Si II lines. Contrary to what is commonly assumed by some dust models, we find a nontrivial amount of the cosmic abundance of silicon to be in the gas phase ( 10% or more in many lines of sight). We also explore correlations between depletion and line of sight properties.
Destree Joshua D.
Jensen Adam G.
Snow Theodore P.
Sofia Ulysses John
Sonneborn George
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