No Arabic abstract
The aim of this work is to contribute to the understanding of the stellar velocity distribution in the solar neighborhood (SN). We propose that the structures on the $U-V$ planes, known as the moving groups, can be mainly explained by the spiral arms perturbations. The applied model of the Galactic disk and spiral arms, with the parameters defined by observational data and with pattern speed $Omega_p=$28.0 km s$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-1}$, is the same that allowed us to explain the origin of the Local Arm and the Suns orbit trapped inside the corotation resonance (CR). We show that the $U-V$ picture of the SN consists of the main component, associated with the CR, and the inner and outer structures, which we could associate with the Hercules and Sirius streams, respectively. The Coma-Berenices and Hyades-Pleiades groups and the Sun itself belong to the main part. The substructures of Hercules are formed mainly by the nearby 8/1, 12/1, and even 6/1 inner Lindblad resonances, while Sirius is shaped by the bulk of overlapping outer Lindblad resonances, -8/1, -12/1, -16/1, which are stuck to the CR. This richness in resonances only exists near corotation, which should be of the spiral arms, not of the Galactic bar, whose stable corotation zone is far away from the Sun. The models predictions of the velocity distribution match qualitatively and quantitatively the distribution provided by Gaia DR2.
We use an improved wavelet analysis technique to reconstruct the $(U,V,W)$ velocity distribution for $sim 250000$ stars from Gaia DR2, residing in the solar neighborhood of $200$~pc. The 2D wavelet transforms for three bivariate distributions $(U,V)$, $(U,W)$, and $(V,W)$ were investigated. Though most of currently known (low-velocity) stellar moving groups are densely overlapped in these diagrams, our analysis allowed to detect and disentangle about twenty statistically significant 3D groups of stars with high velocities. Most of them appear new. We also discuss the issue of correct noise thresholding in the wavelet transform and highlight the importance of using a global rather than local statistic for that. Using of a local significance measure may lead to an overstated statistical confidence for individual patterns due to the effect of multiple testing.
By taking advantage of the superb measurements of position and velocity for an unprecedented large number of stars provided in Gaia DR2, we have generated the first maps of the rotation velocity, $V_{rm rot}$, and vertical velocity, $V_{rm z}$, distributions as a function of the Galactocentric radius, $R_{rm gal}$, across a radial range of $5<R_{rm gal}<12$~kpc. In the $R-V_{rm rot}$ map, we have identified many diagonal ridge features, which are compared with the location of the spiral arms and the expected outer Lindblad resonance of the Galactic bar. We have detected also radial wave-like oscillations of the peak of the vertical velocity distribution.
We develop a novel method to simultaneously determine the vertical potential, force and stellar $z-v_z$ phase space distribution function (DF) in our local patch of the Galaxy. We assume that the Solar Neighborhood can be treated as a one-dimensional system in dynamical equilibrium and directly fit the number density in the $z-v_z$ plane to what we call the Rational Linear DF (RLDF) model. This model can be regarded as a continuous sum of isothermal DFs though it has only one more parameter than the isothermal model. We apply our method to a sample of giant stars from Gaia Data Release 2 and show that the RLDF provides an excellent fit to the data. The well-known phase space spiral emerges in the residual map of the $z-v_z$ plane. We use the best-fit potential to plot the residuals in terms of the frequency and angle of vertical oscillations and show that the spiral maps into a straight line. From its slope, we estimate that the phase spirals were generated by a perturbation $sim540$ Myr years ago. We also determine the differential surface density as a function of vertical velocity dispersion, a.k.a. the vertical temperature distribution. The result is qualitatively similar to what was previously found for SDSS/SEGUE G dwarfs. Finally, we address parameter degeneracies and the validity of the 1D approximation. Particularly, the mid-plane density derived from a cold subsample, where the 1D approximation is more secure, is closer to literature values than that derived from the sample as a whole.
We study the number density distribution of a sample of K and M dwarf stars, matched North and South of the Galactic plane within a distance of 2 kpc from the sun, using observations from the Ninth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We determine distances using the photometric parallax method, and in this context systematic effects exist which could potentially impact the determination of the number density profile with height from the Galactic plane --- and ultimately affect a number density North-South asymmetry. They include: (i) the calibration of the various photometric parallax relations, (ii) the ability to separate dwarfs from giants in our sample, (iii) the role of stellar population differences such as age and metallicity, (iv) the ability to determine the offset of the sun from the Galactic plane, and (v) the correction for reddening from dust in the Galactic plane, though our stars are at high Galactic latitudes. We find the various analyzed systematic effects to have a negligible impact on our observed asymmetry, and using a new and larger sample of stars we confirm and refine the earlier discovery of Widrow et al. of a significant Galactic North-South asymmetry in the stellar number density distribution.
The velocity distribution of stars is a sensitive probe of the gravitational potential of the Galaxy, and hence of its dark matter distribution. In particular, the shape of the dark halo (e.g. spherical, oblate, or prolate) determines velocity correlations, and different halo geometries are expected to result in measurable differences. Here we explore and interpret the correlations in the $(v_R, v_z)$-velocity distribution as a function of position in the Milky Way. We selected a high-quality sample of stars from the Gaia DR2 catalogue and characterised the orientation of the velocity distribution or tilt angle over a radial distance range of $[4-13]~$kpc and up to $3.5~$kpc away from the Galactic plane while taking into account the effects of the measurement errors. We find that the tilt angles change from spherical alignment in the inner Galaxy ($Rsim4~$kpc) towards more cylindrical alignments in the outer Galaxy ($Rsim11~$kpc) when using distances that take a global zero-point offset in the parallax of $-29~mu$as. However, if the amplitude of this offset is underestimated, then the inferred tilt angles in the outer Galaxy only appear shallower and are intrinsically more consistent with spherical alignment for an offset as large as $-54~mu$as. We further find that the tilt angles do not seem to strongly vary with Galactic azimuth and that different stellar populations depict similar tilt angles. Therefore we introduce a simple analytic function that describes the trends found over the full radial range. Since the systematic parallax errors in Gaia DR2 depend on celestial position, magnitude, and colour in complex ways, it is not possible to fully correct for them. Therefore it will be particularly important for dynamical modelling of the Milky Way to thoroughly characterise the systematics in astrometry in future Gaia data releases.