Densities and filling factors of the DIG in the Solar neighbourhood

Understand

For the first time we have combined dispersion measures and emission measures towards 38 pulsars at KNOWN distances from which we derived the mean electron density in clouds, N_c, and their volume filling factor, F_v, averaged along the line of sight.

• The emission measures were corrected for absorption by dust and contributions from beyond the pulsar distance.
• Results: The scale height of the electron layer for our sample is 0.93+/-0.13 kpc and the midplane electron density is 0.023+/-0.004 cm^-3, in agreement with earlier results.
• The average density along the line of sight is <n_e> = 0.018+/-0.002 cm^-3 and nearly constant.