We present simulations of Far Infrared (FIR) emission by dust in spiral
galaxies, based on the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code of Bianchi, Ferrara
& Giovanardi (1996). The radiative transfer is carried out at several
wavelength in the Ultraviolet, optical and Near Infrared, to cover the range of
the stellar Spectral Energy Distribution (SED). Together with the images of the
galactic model, a map of the energy absorbed by dust is produced. Using
Galactic dust properties, the spatial distribution of dust temperature is
derived under the assumption of thermal equilibrium. A correction is applied
for non-equilibrium emission in the Mid Infrared. Images of dust emission can
then be produced at any wavelength in the FIR.
We show the application of the model to the spiral galaxy NGC 6946. The
observed stellar SED is used as input and models are produced for different
star-dust geometries. It is found that only optically thick dust disks can
reproduce the observed amount of FIR radiation. However, it is not possible to
reproduce the large FIR scalelength suggested by recent observation of spirals
at 200 um, even when the scalelength of the dust disk is larger than that for
stars. Optically thin models have ratios of optical/FIR scalelengths closer to
the 200um observations, but with smaller absolute scalelengths than optically
thick cases. The modelled temperature distributions are compatible with
observations of the Galaxy and other spirals. We finally discuss the
approximations of the model and the impact of a clumpy stellar and dust
structure on the FIR simulations.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, accepted by A&
