No Arabic abstract
As part of the ESO-VLT Multi-Instrument Kinematic Survey (MIKiS) of Galactic globular clusters, we present a detailed investigation of the internal kinematics of NGC 5986. The analysis is based on about 300 individual radial velocities of stars located at various distances from the cluster center, up to 300 arcseconds (about 4 half-mass radii). Our analysis reveals the presence of a solid-body rotation extending from the cluster center to the outermost regions probed by the data, and a velocity dispersion profile initially declining with the distance from the clusters center, but flattening and staying constant at ~5 km/s for distances larger than about one half-mass radius. This is the first globular cluster for which evidence of the joint presence of solid-body rotation and flattening in the outer velocity dispersion profile is found. The combination of these two kinematical features provides a unique opportunity to shed light on fundamental aspects of globular cluster dynamics and probe the extent to which internal relaxation, star escape, angular momentum transport and loss, and the interaction with the Galaxy tidal field can affect a clusters dynamical evolution and determine its current kinematical properties. We present the results of a series of N-body simulations illustrating the possible dynamical paths leading to kinematic features like those observed in this cluster and the fundamental dynamical processes that underpin them.
We present the first results of the Multi-Instrument Kinematic Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters, a project aimed at exploring the internal kinematics of a representative sample of Galactic globular clusters from the radial velocity of individual stars, covering the entire radial extension of each system. This is achieved by exploiting the formidable combination of multi-object and integral field unit spectroscopic facilities of the ESO Very Large Telescope. As a first step, here we discuss the results obtained for 11 clusters from high and medium resolution spectra acquired through a combination of FLAMES and KMOS observations. We provide the first kinematical characterization of NGC 1261 and NGC 6496. In all the surveyed systems, the velocity dispersion profile declines at increasing radii, in agreement with the expectation from the King model that best fits the density/luminosity profile. In the majority of the surveyed systems we find evidence of rotation within a few half-mass radii from the center. These results are in general overall agreement with the predictions of recent theoretical studies, suggesting that the detected signals could be the relic of significant internal rotation set at the epoch of the clusters formation.
In the context of the ESO-VLT Multi-Instrument Kinematic Survey (MIKiS) of Galactic globular clusters, we present the line-of-sight rotation curve and velocity dispersion profile of M5 (NGC 5904), as determined from the radial velocity of more than 800 individual stars observed out to 700 (~ 5 half-mass radii) from the center. We find one of the cleanest and most coherent rotation patterns ever observed for globular clusters, with a very stable rotation axis (having constant position angle of 145^o at all surveyed radii) and a well-defined rotation curve. The density distribution turns out to be flattened in the direction perpendicular to the rotation axis, with a maximum ellipticity of 0.15. The rotation velocity peak (~3 km/s in projection) is observed at ~0.6 half-mass radii, and its ratio with respect to the central velocity dispersion (~0.3-0.4 at 4 projected half-mass radii) indicates that ordered motions play a significant dynamical role. This result strengthens the growing empirical evidence of the kinematic complexity of Galactic globular clusters and motivates the need of fundamental investigations of the role of angular momentum in collisional stellar dynamics.
The Gaia-ESO survey is a large public spectroscopic survey aimed at investigating the origin and formation history of our Galaxy by collecting spectroscopy of representative samples (about 10^5 Milky Way stars) of all Galactic stellar populations, in the field and in clusters. The survey uses globular clusters as intra- and inter-survey calibrators, deriving stellar atmospheric parameters and abundances of a significant number of stars in clusters, along with radial velocity determinations. We used precise radial velocities of a large number of stars in seven globular clusters (NGC 1851, NGC 2808, NGC 4372, NGC 4833, NGC 5927, NGC 6752, and NGC 7078) to validate pipeline results and to preliminarily investigate the cluster internal kinematics. Radial velocity measurements were extracted from FLAMES/GIRAFFE spectra processed by the survey pipeline as part of the second internal data release of data products to ESO. We complemented our sample with ESO archival data obtained with different instrument configurations. Reliable radial velocity measurements for 1513 bona fide cluster star members were obtained in total. We measured systemic rotation, estimated central velocity dispersions, and present velocity dispersion profiles of all the selected clusters, providing the first velocity dispersion curve and the first estimate of the central velocity dispersion for the cluster NGC~5927. Finally, we explore the possible link between cluster kinematics and other physical parameters. The analysis we present here demonstrates that Gaia-ESO survey data are sufficiently accurate to be used in studies of kinematics of stellar systems and stellar populations in the Milky Way.
Understanding the history and the evolution of the Milky Way disc is one of the main goals of modern astrophysics. We study the velocity dispersion behaviour of Galactic disc stars as a function of the [Mg/Fe] ratio, which can be used as a proxy of relative age. This key relation is essential to constrain the formation mechanisms of the disc stellar populations as well as the cooling processes. We used the recommended parameters and chemical abundances of 7800 FGK Milky Way field stars from the second internal data release of the Gaia-ESO Survey. These stars were observed with the GIRAFFE spectrograph, and cover a large spatial volume (6<R<10kpc and |Z|<2kpc). Based on the [Mg/Fe] and [Fe/H] ratios, we separated the thin- from the thick-disc sequence. From analysing the Galactocentric velocity of the stars for the thin disc, we find a weak positive correlation between Vphi and [Fe/H], due to a slowly rotating Fe-poor tail. For the thick disc, a strong correlation with [Fe/H] and [Mg/Fe] is established. We have detected an inversion of the radial velocity dispersion with [Mg/Fe] for thick-disc stars with [Fe/H]<-0.1dex and [Mg/Fe]>+0.2dex. First, the velocity dispersion increases with [Mg/Fe] at all [Fe/H] ratios for the thin-disc stars, and then it decreases for the thick-disc at the highest [Mg/Fe] abundances. Similar trends are observed within the errors for the azimuthal velocity dispersion, while a continuous increase with [Mg/Fe] is observed for the vertical velocity dispersion. The velocity dispersion decrease agrees with previous measurements of the RAVE survey, although it is observed here for a greater metallicity interval and a larger spatial volume. We confirm the existence of [Mg/Fe]-rich thick-disc stars with cool kinematics in the generally turbulent context of the primitive Galactic disc. This is discussed in the framework of the different disc formation scenarios.
Recently, two independent groups found very different results when measuring the central velocity dispersion of the galactic globular cluster NGC 6388 with different methods. While Lutzgendorf et al. (2011) found a rising profile and a high central velocity dispersion (23.3 km/s), measurements obtained by Lanzoni et al. (2013) showed a value 40% lower. The value of the central velocity dispersion has a serious impact on the mass and possible presence of an intermediate-mass black hole at the center of NGC 6388. We use a photometric catalog of NGC 6388 to create a simulated SINFONI and ARGUS dataset. The construction of the IFU data cube is done with different observing conditions reproducing the conditions reported for the original observations as closely as possible. In addition, we produce an N-body realization of a 10^6 M_SUN stellar cluster with the same photometric properties as NGC 6388 to account for unresolved stars. We find that the individual radial velocities, i.e. the measurements from the simulated SINFONI data, are systematically biased towards lower velocity dispersions. The reason is that due to the wings in the point spread function the velocities get biased towards the mean cluster velocity. This study shows that even with AO supported observations, individual radial velocities in crowded fields are likely to be biased. The ARGUS observations do not show this kind of bias but were found to have larger uncertainties than previously obtained. We find a bias towards higher velocity dispersions in the ARGUS pointing when fixing the extreme velocities of the three brightest stars but find those variations are within the determined uncertainties. We rerun Jeans models and fit the kinematic profile with the new uncertainties. This yields a BH mass of M_BH = (2.8 +- 0.4) x 10^4 M_SUN and M/L ratio M/L = (1.6 +- 0.1) M_SUN/L_SUN, consistent with our previous results.