A systematic study of Galactic infrared bubbles along the Galactic plane with AKARI and Herschel

Abstract

Abstract Galactic infrared (IR) bubbles, which have shell-like structures in the mid-IR wavelengths, are known to contain massive stars near their centers. Infrared bubbles in inner Galactic regions (|l| ≤ 65°, |b| ≤ 1°) have so far been studied well to understand the massive star formation mechanisms. In this study, we expand the research area to the whole Galactic plane (0° ≤ l < 360°, |b| ≤ 5°), using the AKARI all-sky survey data. We limit our study to large bubbles with angular radii of >1′ to reliably identify and characterize them. For the 247 IR bubbles in total, we derived the radii and the covering fractions of the shells, based on the method developed by Y. Hattori et al. (2016, PASJ, 68, 37). We also created their spectral energy distributions, using the AKARI and Herschel photometric data, and decomposed them with a dust model to obtain the total IR luminosity and the luminosity of each dust component, i.e., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), warm dust, and cold dust. As a result, we find that there are systematic differences in the IR properties of the bubbles between the inner and outer Galactic regions. The total IR luminosities are lower in outer Galactic regions, while there is no systematic difference in the range of the shell radii between inner and outer Galactic regions. More IR bubbles tend to be observed as broken bubbles rather than closed ones and the fractional luminosities of the PAH emission are significantly higher in outer Galactic regions. We discuss the implications of these results for the massive stars and the interstellar environments associated with the Galactic IR bubbles.