Measuring torque of galactic bar from Gaia DR2

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (S353) ◽  
pp. 49-50
Author(s):  
Rain Kipper ◽  
Elmo Tempel

AbstractSince past few decades, observations have improved so strongly that when modelling Milky Way (MW) dynamics it is required to include small perturbations to the modelling process. It is difficult task that we try to solve by selecting regions to model so small that the perturbation can be considered to give nearly constant effect. We use Solar Neighbourhood (SN) as our test sample and assume that the bar effects show more or less constant contribution to SN. By extrapolating and smoothing observed stars on their orbits, and requiring that smoothed and observed phase space are consistent we were able to deduce acceleration vector. We conclude from non-radial acceleration component that the bar must cause about one third of total acceleration near SN.

2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (3) ◽  
pp. 3358-3367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rain Kipper ◽  
Peeter Tenjes ◽  
Taavi Tuvikene ◽  
Punyakoti Ganeshaiah Veena ◽  
Elmo Tempel

ABSTRACT We determine the mass of the Milky Way bar and the torque it causes, using Gaia DR2, by applying the orbital arc method. Based on this, we have found that the gravitational acceleration is not directed towards the centre of our Galaxy but a few degrees away from it. We propose that the tangential acceleration component is caused by the bar of the Galaxy. Calculations based on our model suggest that the torque experienced by the region around the Sun is $\approx 2400\, {\rm km^2\, s^{-2}}$ per solar mass. The mass estimate for the bar is $\sim 1.6\pm 0.3\times 10^{10}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$. Using greatly improved data from Gaia DR2, we have computed the acceleration field to great accuracy by adapting the orbital Probability Density Function (oPDF) method (Han et al. 2016) locally and used the phase space coordinates of ∼4 × 105 stars within a distance of 0.5 kpc from the Sun. In the orbital arc method, the first step is to guess an acceleration field and then reconstruct the stellar orbits using this acceleration for all the stars within a specified region. Next, the stars are redistributed along orbits to check if the overall phase space distribution has changed. We repeat this process until we find an acceleration field that results in a new phase space distribution that is the same as the one that we started with; we have then recovered the true underlying acceleration.


Author(s):  
F Fragkoudi ◽  
D Katz ◽  
W Trick ◽  
S D M White ◽  
P Di Matteo ◽  
...  

Abstract We explore the origin of phase-space substructures revealed by the second Gaia data release in the disc of the Milky Way, such as the ridges in the Vφ-r plane, the undulations in the Vφ-r-Vr space and the streams in the Vφ-Vr plane. We use a collisionless N-body simulation with co-spatial thin and thick discs, along with orbit integration, to study the orbital structure close to the Outer Lindblad Resonance (OLR) of the bar. We find that a prominent, long-lived ridge is formed in the Vφ-r plane due to the OLR which translates to streams in the Vφ-Vr plane and examine which closed periodic and trapped librating orbits are responsible for these features. We find that orbits which carry out small librations around the x1(1) family are preferentially found at negative Vr, giving rise to a ‘horn’-like feature, while orbits with larger libration amplitudes, trapped around the x1(2) and x1(1) families, constitute the positive Vr substructure, i.e. the Hercules-like feature. This changing libration amplitude of orbits will translate to a changing ratio of thin/thick disc stars, which could have implications on the metallicity distribution in this plane. We find that a scenario in which the Sun is placed close to the OLR gives rise to a strong asymmetry in Vr in the Vφ-Vr plane (i.e. Hercules vs. ‘the horn’) and subsequently to undulations in the Vφ-r-Vr space. We also explore a scenario in which the Sun is placed closer to the bar corotation and find that the bar perturbation alone cannot give rise to the these features.


2006 ◽  
Vol 646 (2) ◽  
pp. 886-898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea S. Font ◽  
Kathryn V. Johnston ◽  
James S. Bullock ◽  
Brant E. Robertson

2018 ◽  
Vol 618 ◽  
pp. A93 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Cantat-Gaudin ◽  
C. Jordi ◽  
A. Vallenari ◽  
A. Bragaglia ◽  
L. Balaguer-Núñez ◽  
...  

Context. Open clusters are convenient probes of the structure and history of the Galactic disk. They are also fundamental to stellar evolution studies. The second Gaia data release contains precise astrometry at the submilliarcsecond level and homogeneous photometry at the mmag level, that can be used to characterise a large number of clusters over the entire sky. Aims. In this study we aim to establish a list of members and derive mean parameters, in particular distances, for as many clusters as possible, making use of Gaia data alone. Methods. We compiled a list of thousands of known or putative clusters from the literature. We then applied an unsupervised membership assignment code, UPMASK, to the Gaia DR2 data contained within the fields of those clusters. Results. We obtained a list of members and cluster parameters for 1229 clusters. As expected, the youngest clusters are seen to be tightly distributed near the Galactic plane and to trace the spiral arms of the Milky Way, while older objects are more uniformly distributed, deviate further from the plane, and tend to be located at larger Galactocentric distances. Thanks to the quality of Gaia DR2 astrometry, the fully homogeneous parameters derived in this study are the most precise to date. Furthermore, we report on the serendipitous discovery of 60 new open clusters in the fields analysed during this study.


2018 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. A103 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. K. Fritz ◽  
G. Battaglia ◽  
M. S. Pawlowski ◽  
N. Kallivayalil ◽  
R. van der Marel ◽  
...  

A proper understanding of the Milky Way (MW) dwarf galaxies in a cosmological context requires knowledge of their 3D velocities and orbits. However, proper motion (PM) measurements have generally been of limited accuracy and are available only for more massive dwarfs. We therefore present a new study of the kinematics of the MW dwarf galaxies. We use the Gaia DR2 for those dwarfs that have been spectroscopically observed in the literature. We derive systemic PMs for 39 galaxies and galaxy candidates out to 420 kpc, and generally find good consistency for the subset with measurements available from other studies. We derive the implied Galactocentric velocities, and calculate orbits in canonical MW halo potentials of low (0.8 × 1012 M⊙) and high mass (1.6 × 1012 M⊙). Comparison of the distributions of orbital apocenters and 3D velocities to the halo virial radius and escape velocity, respectively, suggests that the satellite kinematics are best explained in the high-mass halo. Tuc III, Crater II, and additional candidates have orbital pericenters small enough to imply significant tidal influences. Relevant to the missing satellite problem, the fact that fewer galaxies are observed to be near apocenter than near pericenter implies that there must be a population of distant dwarf galaxies yet to be discovered. Of the 39 dwarfs: 12 have orbital poles that do not align with the MW plane of satellites (given reasonable assumptions about its intrinsic thickness); 10 have insufficient PM accuracy to establish whether they align; and 17 satellites align, of which 11 are co-orbiting and (somewhat surprisingly, in view of prior knowledge) 6 are counter-orbiting. Group infall might have contributed to this, but no definitive association is found for the members of the Crater-Leo group.


2020 ◽  
Vol 643 ◽  
pp. A115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Breuval ◽  
Pierre Kervella ◽  
Richard I. Anderson ◽  
Adam G. Riess ◽  
Frédéric Arenou ◽  
...  

Aims. Classical Cepheids provide the foundation for the empirical extragalactic distance ladder. Milky Way Cepheids are the only stars in this class accessible to trigonometric parallax measurements. However, the parallaxes of Cepheids from the second Gaia data release (GDR2) are affected by systematics because of the absence of chromaticity correction, and occasionally by saturation. Methods. As a proxy for the parallaxes of 36 Galactic Cepheids, we adopt either the GDR2 parallaxes of their spatially resolved companions or the GDR2 parallax of their host open cluster. This novel approach allows us to bypass the systematics on the GDR2 Cepheids parallaxes that is induced by saturation and variability. We adopt a GDR2 parallax zero-point (ZP) of −0.046 mas with an uncertainty of 0.015 mas that covers most of the recent estimates. Results. We present new Galactic calibrations of the Leavitt law in the V, J, H, KS, and Wesenheit WH bands. We compare our results with previous calibrations based on non-Gaia measurements and compute a revised value for the Hubble constant anchored to Milky Way Cepheids. Conclusions. From an initial Hubble constant of 76.18 ± 2.37 km s−1 Mpc−1 based on parallax measurements without Gaia, we derive a revised value by adopting companion and average cluster parallaxes in place of direct Cepheid parallaxes, and we find H0 = 72.8 ± 1.9 (statistical + systematics) ±1.9 (ZP) km s−1 Mpc−1 when all Cepheids are considered and H0 = 73.0 ± 1.9 (statistical + systematics) ±1.9 (ZP) km s−1 Mpc−1 for fundamental mode pulsators only.


2018 ◽  
Vol 616 ◽  
pp. L9 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Monari ◽  
B. Famaey ◽  
I. Carrillo ◽  
T. Piffl ◽  
M. Steinmetz ◽  
...  

We measure the escape speed curve of the Milky Way based on the analysis of the velocity distribution of ~2850 counter-rotating halo stars from the Gaia Data Release 2. The distances were estimated through the StarHorse code, and only stars with distance errors smaller than 10% were used in the study. The escape speed curve is measured at Galactocentric radii ranging from ~5 kpc to ~10.5 kpc. The local Galactic escape at the Sun’s position is estimated to be ve(r⊙) = 580 ± 63 km s−1, and it rises towards the Galactic centre. Defined as the minimum speed required to reach three virial radii, our estimate of the escape speed as a function of radius implies for a Navarro–Frenk–White profile and local circular velocity of 240 km s−1 a dark matter mass M200 = 1.28−0.50+0.68 × 1012 M⊙ and a high concentration c200 = 11.09−1.79+2.94. Assuming the mass-concentration relation of ΛCDM, we obtain M200 = 1.55−0.51+0.64 × 1012 M⊙ and c200 = 7.93−0.27+0.33 for a local circular velocity of 228 km s−1.


2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (4) ◽  
pp. 6001-6011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Selina Nitschai ◽  
Michele Cappellari ◽  
Nadine Neumayer

ABSTRACT We construct the first comprehensive dynamical model for the high-quality subset of stellar kinematics of the Milky Way disc, with full 6D phase-space coordinates, provided by the Gaia Data Release 2. We adopt an axisymmetric approximation and use an updated Jeans Anisotropic Modelling (JAM) method, which allows for a generic shape and radial orientation of the velocity ellipsoid, as indicated by the Gaia data, to fit the mean velocities and all three components of the intrinsic velocity dispersion tensor. The Milky Way is the first galaxy for which all intrinsic phase space coordinates are available, and the kinematics are superior to the best integral-field kinematics of external galaxies. This situation removes the long-standing dynamical degeneracies and makes this the first dynamical model highly overconstrained by the kinematics. For these reasons, our ability to fit the data provides a fundamental test for both galaxy dynamics and the mass distribution in the Milky Way disc. We tightly constrain the volume average total density logarithmic slope, in the radial range 3.6–12 kpc, to be αtot = −2.149 ± 0.055 and find that the dark halo slope must be significantly steeper than αDM = −1 (NFW). The dark halo shape is close to spherical and its density is ρDM(R⊙) = 0.0115 ± 0.0020 M⊙ pc−3 (0.437 ± 0.076 GeV cm−3), in agreement with previous estimates. The circular velocity at the solar position vcirc(R⊙) = 236.5 ± 3.1 km s−1 (including systematics) and its gently declining radial trends are also consistent with recent determinations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 634 ◽  
pp. A33
Author(s):  
Leire Beitia-Antero ◽  
Ana Inés Gómez de Castro ◽  
Raúl de la Fuente Marcos

Context. Deep GALEX UV data show that the extreme outskirts of some spiral galaxies are teeming with star formation. Such young stellar populations evolving so far away from the bulk of their host galaxies challenge our overall understanding of how star formation proceeds at galactic scales. It is at present unclear whether our own Milky Way may also exhibit ongoing and recent star formation beyond the conventional edge of the disk (∼15 kpc). Aims. Using Gaia DR2 data, we aim to determine if such a population is present in the Galactic halo, beyond the nominal radius of the Milky Way disk. Methods. We studied the kinematics of Gaia DR2 sources with parallax values between 1/60 and 1/30 milliarcseconds towards two regions that show abnormally high values of extinction and reddening; the results are compared with predictions from GALAXIA Galactic model. We also plotted the color–magnitude (CM) diagrams with heliocentric distances computed inverting the parallaxes, and studied the effects of the large parallax errors by Monte Carlo sampling. Results. The kinematics point towards a Galactic origin for one of the regions, while the provenance of the stars in the other is not clear. A spectroscopic analysis of some of the sources in the first region confirms that they are located in the halo. The CM diagram of the sources suggests that some of them are young.


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