On the Apparent Associations between Interstellar Neutral Hydrogen Structure and (WMAP) High Frequency Continuum Emission

Abstract

Galactic neutral hydrogen (HI) within a few hundred parsecs of the Sun contains structure with an angular distribution that is similar to small-scale structure observed by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). A total of 108 associated pairs of associated HI and WMAP features have now been cataloged using HI data mapped in 2 km/s intervals and these pairs show a typical offset of 0.8 degrees. A large-scale statistical test for a direct association is carried out that casts little additional light on whether the these small offsets are merely coincidental or carry information. To pursue the issue further, the nature of several of the features within the foreground HI most closely associated with WMAP structure are examined in detail and it is shown that the cross-correlation coefficient for well-matched pairs of structures is of order unity. It is shown that free-free emission from electrons in unresolved density enhancements in interstellar space could theoretically produce high-frequency radio continuum radiation at the levels observed by WMAP and that such emission will appear nearly flat across the WMAP frequency range. Evidence for such structure in the interstellar medium already exists in the literature. Until higher angular resolution observations of the high-frequency continuum emission structure as well as the apparently associated HI structure become available, it may be difficult to rule out the possibility that some if not all the small-scale structure usually attributed to the cosmic microwave background may have a galactic origin.