The Dust Extinction Curve: Beyond R(V)

The dust extinction curve is typically parameterized by a single variable, R(V), in optical and near-infrared wavelengths. R(V) controls the slope of the extinction-versus-wavelength curve, and is thought to reflect the grain-size distribution and composition of dust. Low-resolution, flux-calibrated BP/RP spectra from Gaia have allowed the determination of the extinction curve along sightlines to 130 million stars in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds. We show that these extinction curves contain more than a single degree of freedom—that is, that they are not simply described by R(V). We identify a number of components that are orthogonal to R(V) variation, and we show that these components vary across the sky in coherent patterns that resemble interstellar medium (ISM) structure. These components encode variation in the 770 nm extinction feature, intermediate-scale and very broad structure, and a newly identified feature at 850 nm, and they likely trace both dust composition and local conditions in the ISM. Correlations of the 770 and 850 nm features with R(V) suggest that their carriers become more abundant as the carrier of the 2175 Å feature is destroyed. Our 24 million extinction-curve decompositions and feature equivalent-width measurements are publicly available at doi:10.5281/zenodo.14005028.