http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.06951
I review the literature covering the issue of interstellar extinction toward the Milky Way bulge, with emphasis placed on findings from planetary nebulae, RR Lyrae, and red clump stars. I also report on observations from HI gas and globular clusters. I show that there has been substantial progress in this field in recent decades, most particularly from red clump stars. The spatial coverage of extinction maps has increased by a factor $\sim 100 \times$ in the past twenty years, and the total-to-selective extinction ratios reported have shifted by $\sim$20-25\%, indicative of the improved accuracy and separately, of a steeper-than-standard extinction curve. Problems remain in modelling differential extinction, explaining anomalies involving the planetary nebulae, and understanding the difference between bulge extinction coefficients and “standard” literature values.
D. Nataf
Thu, 24 Mar 16
46/60
Comments: 12 pages, 6 figures, 2 Tables, invited article to PASA special review issue on the Galactic Bulge, edited by Beatriz Barbuy. This version includes minor modifications requested by referee prior to being accepted for publication
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