Description
In a previous paper we proposed a new model for the emission by amorphous astronomical dust grains, based on solid-state physics. The model uses a description of the disordered charge distribution (DCD) combined with the presence of two-level systems (TLS) defects in the amorphous solid composing the grains. The goal of this paper is to compare this new model to astronomical observations of different Galactic environments in the far-infrared/ submillimeter, in order to derive a set of canonical model parameters to be used as a Galactic reference to be compared to in future Galactic and extragalactic studies. We compare the TLSmodel with existing astronomical data. We consider the average emission spectrum at high latitudes in our Galaxy as measured with FIRAS and WMAP, as well as the emission from Galactic compact sources observed with the Archeops balloon experiment, for which an inverse relationship between the dust temperature and the emissivity spectral index has been proven.
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