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The Effect of Noise on the Dust Temperature - Spectral Index Correlation

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arxiv 0902.0636 v2 pith:KKNWABOC submitted 2009-02-03 astro-ph.GA astro-ph.SR

The Effect of Noise on the Dust Temperature - Spectral Index Correlation

classification astro-ph.GA astro-ph.SR
keywords betacorrelationinversedustnoisesourcesfitsindex
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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We investigate how uncertainties in flux measurements affect the results from modified blackbody SED fits. We show that an inverse correlation between the dust temperature T and spectral index (beta) naturally arises from least squares fits due to the uncertainties, even for sources with a single T and beta. Fitting SEDs to noisy fluxes solely in the Rayleigh-Jeans regime produces unreliable T and beta estimates. Thus, for long wavelength observations (lambda >~ 200 micron), or for warm sources (T >~ 60 K), it becomes difficult to distinguish sources with different temperatures. We assess the role of noise in recent observational results that indicate an inverse and continuously varying T - beta relation. Though an inverse and continuous T - beta correlation may be a physical property of dust in the ISM, we find that the observed inverse correlation may be primarily due to noise.

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  1. Effects of temperature-dependent optical properties on the determination of interstellar dust masses

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    Using lab-measured temperature-dependent opacities, fixed-β modified-blackbody fits overestimate high-z dust masses by 25–60% from temperature dependence alone.