The IPHAS catalogue of Hα emission-line sources in the northern Galactic plane

Witham, A.R., Knigge, C., Drew, J.E., Greimel, R., Steeghs, D., Gänsicke, B.T., Groot, P.J. and Mampaso, A. (2008) The IPHAS catalogue of Hα emission-line sources in the northern Galactic plane. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 384 (4), 1277-1288. (doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12774.x).

Abstract

We present a catalogue of point-source H? emission-line objects selected from the INT/WFC Photometric Hα Survey (IPHAS) of the northern Galactic plane. The catalogue covers the magnitude range 13 ≤ r' ≤ 19.5 and includes Northern hemisphere sources in the Galactic latitude range -5° < b < 5° . It is derived from ~1500 deg² worth of imaging data, which represents 80 per cent of the final IPHAS survey area. The electronic version of the catalogue will be updated once the full survey data become available. In total, the present catalogue contains 4853 point sources that exhibit strong photometric evidence for Hα emission. We have so far analysed spectra for ~300 of these sources, confirming more than 95 per cent of them as genuine emission-line stars. A wide range of stellar populations are represented in the catalogue, including early-type emission-line stars, active late-type stars, interacting binaries, young stellar objects and compact nebulae.

The spatial distribution of catalogue objects shows overdensities near sites of recent or current star formation, as well as possible evidence for the warp of the Galactic plane. Photometrically, the incidence of Hα emission is bimodally distributed in (r' - i') . The blue peak is made up mostly of early-type emission-line stars, whereas the red peak may signal an increasing contribution from other objects, such as young/active low-mass stars. We have cross-matched our Hα-excess catalogue against the emission-line star catalogue of Kohoutek & Wehmeyer, as well as against sources in SIMBAD. We find that fewer than 10 per cent of our sources can be matched to known objects of any type. Thus IPHAS is uncovering an order of magnitude more faint (r' > 13) emission-line objects than were previously known in the Milky Way.

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