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An Optical Spectrum of the Diffuse Galactic Light from BOSS and IRIS

We present a spectrum of the diffuse Galactic light (DGL) between 3700 and 10,000 A, obtained by correlating optical sky intensity with far-infrared dust emission. We use nearly 250,000 blank-sky spectra from BOSS/SDSS-III together with IRIS-reprocessed maps from the IRAS satellite. The larger sample size compared to SDSS-II results in a factor-of-two increase in signal to noise. We combine these data sets with a model for the optical/far-infrared correlation that accounts for self-absorption by dust. The spectral features of the DGL agree remarkably well with features present in stellar spectra. There is evidence for a difference in the DGL continuum between the regions covered by BOSS in the northern and southern Galactic hemisphere. We interpret the difference at red wavelengths as the result of a difference in stellar populations, with mainly old stars in both regions but a higher fraction of young stars in the south. There is also a broad excess in the southern DGL spectrum over the prediction of a simple radiative transfer model, without a clear counterpart in the north. We interpret this excess, centered at ~6500 A, as evidence for luminescence in the form of extended red emission (ERE). The observed strength of the 4000 A break indicates that at most ~7% of the dust-correlated light at 4000 A can be due to blue luminescence. Our DGL spectrum provides constraints on dust scattering and luminescence independent of measurements of extinction.