Bayesian evidence for flux scale errors in Galactic synchrotron maps

Abstract

The 408 MHz Haslam map is widely used as a low-frequency anchor for the intensity and morphology of Galactic synchrotron emission. Multifrequency, multi-experiment fits show evidence of spatial variation and curvature in the synchrotron frequency spectrum, but there are also poorly understood multiplicative flux scale disagreements between experiments. We perform a Bayesian model comparison across a range of scenarios, using fits that include recent spectroscopic observations at GHz by MeerKAT as well as a reference map from the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA) at 73 MHz. In the few square degrees that we analysed, a large uncorrected flux scale factor potentially as large as 1.6 in the Haslam data is preferred, indicating a 60 per cent overestimation of the brightness. This partly undermines its use as a reference map. We also find that models with non-zero spectral curvature are statistically disfavoured. Given the limited sky coverage here, we suggest a similar analysis across many more regions of the sky to determine the extent and variation of flux scale errors, and whether they should be treated as random or systematic errors in analyses that use the Haslam map as a template.