No Arabic abstract
Until the recent advent of $Gaia$ Data Release 2 (DR2) and deep multi-object spectroscopy, it has been difficult to obtain 6-D phase space information for large numbers of stars beyond 4 kpc, in particular towards the Galactic centre, where dust and crowding effects are significant. In this study we combine line-of-sight velocities from the Abundances and Radial velocity Galactic Origins Survey (ARGOS) spectroscopic survey with proper motions from $Gaia$ DR2, to obtain a sample of $sim$ 7,000 red clump stars with 3-D velocities. We perform a large scale stellar kinematics study of the Milky Way (MW) bulge to characterize the bulge velocity ellipsoids. We measure the tilt $l_{v}$ of the major-axis of the velocity ellipsoid in the radial-longitudinal velocity plane in 20 fields across the bulge. The tilt or vertex deviation, is characteristic of non-axisymmetric systems and a significant tilt is a robust indicator of non-axisymmetry or bar presence. We compare the observations to the predicted kinematics of an N-body boxy-bulge model formed from dynamical instabilities. In the model, the $l_{v}$ values are strongly correlated with the angle ($alpha$) between the bulge major-axis and the Sun-Galactic centre line-of-sight. We use a maximum likelihood method to obtain an independent measurement of $alpha$, from bulge stellar kinematics alone. The most likely value of $alpha$ given our model is $alpha = (29 pm 3)^{circ}$. In the Baades window, the metal-rich stars display a larger vertex deviation ($l_{v} = -40^{circ}$) than the metal-poor stars ($l_{v} = 10^{circ}$) but we do not detect significant $l_{v}-$metallicity trends in the other fields.
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.
We present the kinematic results from our ARGOS spectroscopic survey of the Galactic bulge of the Milky Way. Our aim is to understand the formation of the Galactic bulge. We examine the kinematics of about 17,400 stars in the bulge located within 3.5 kpc of the Galactic centre, identified from the 28,000 star ARGOS survey. We aim to determine if the formation of the bulge has been internally driven from disk instabilities as suggested by its boxy shape, or if mergers have played a significant role as expected from Lambda CDM simulations. From our velocity measurements across latitudes b = -5 deg, -7.5 deg and -10 deg we find the bulge to be a cylindrically rotating system that transitions smoothly out into the disk. Within the bulge, we find a kinematically distinct metal-poor population ([Fe/H] < -1.0) that is not rotating cylindrically. The 5% of our stars with [Fe/H] < -1.0 are a slowly rotating spheroidal population, which we believe are stars of the metal weak thick disk and halo which presently lie in the inner Galaxy. The kinematics of the two bulge components that we identified in ARGOS paper III (mean [Fe/H] = -0.25 and [Fe/H] = +0.15, respectively) demonstrate that they are likely to share a common formation origin and are distinct from the more metal poor populations of the thick disk and halo which are colocated inside the bulge. We do not exclude an underlying merger generated bulge component but our results favour bulge formation from instabilities in the early thin disk.
Measuring the escape velocity of the Milky Way is critical in obtaining the mass of the Milky Way, understanding the dark matter velocity distribution, and building the dark matter density profile. In Necib $&$ Lin (2021), we introduced a strategy to robustly measure the escape velocity. Our approach takes into account the presence of kinematic substructures by modeling the tail of the stellar distribution with multiple components, including the stellar halo and the debris flow called the Gaia Sausage (Enceladus). In doing so, we can test the robustness of the escape velocity measurement for different definitions of the tail of the velocity distribution, and the consistency of the data with different underlying models. In this paper, we apply this method to the second data release of Gaia and find that a model with at least two components is preferred. Based on a fit with three bound components to account for the disk, relaxed halo, and the Gaia Sausage, we find the escape velocity of the Milky Way at the solar position to be $v_{rm{esc}}= 484.6^{+17.8}_{-7.4}$ km/s. Assuming a Navarro-Frenck-White dark matter profile, and taken in conjunction with a recent measurement of the circular velocity at the solar position of $v_c = 230 pm 10$ km/s, we find a Milky Way concentration of $c_{200} = 13.8^{+6.0}_{-4.3}$ and a mass of $M_{200} = 7.0^{+1.9}_{-1.2} times 10^{11} M_{odot}$, which is considerably lighter than previous measurements.
We analyzed the distribution of the RC stars throughout Galactic bulge using 2MASS data. We mapped the position of the red clump in 1 sq.deg. size fields within the area |l|<=8.5deg and $3.5deg<=|b|<=8.5deg, for a total of 170 sq.deg. The red clump seen single in the central area splits into two components at high Galactic longitudes in both hemispheres, produced by two structures at different distances along the same line of sight. The X-shape is clearly visible in the Z-X plane for longitudes close to $l=0 deg axis. Crude measurements of the space densities of RC stars in the bright and faint RC populations are consistent with the adopted RC distances, providing further supporting evidence that the X-structure is real, and that there is approximate front-back symmetry in our bulge fields. We conclude that the Milky Way bulge has an X-shaped structure within $|l|<~2deg, seen almost edge on with respect to the line of sight. Additional deep NIR photometry extending into the innermost bulge regions combined with spectroscopic data is needed in order to discriminate among the different possibilities that can cause the observed X-shaped structure.
We compare distance resolved, absolute proper motions in the Milky Way bar/bulge region to a grid of made-to-measure dynamical models with well defined pattern speeds. The data are obtained by combining the relative VVV Infrared Astrometric Catalog v1 proper motions with the Gaia DR2 absolute reference frame. We undertake a comprehensive analysis of the various errors in our comparison, from both the data and the models, and allow for additional, unknown, contributions by using an outlier-tolerant likelihood function to evaluate the best fitting model. We quantify systematic effects such as the region of data included in the comparison, with or without possible overlap from spiral arms, and the choice of synthetic luminosity function and bar angle used to predict the data from the models. Resulting variations in the best-fit parameters are included in the final error budget. We measure the bar pattern speed to be Omega_b=35.4+-0.9 km/s/kpc and the azimuthal solar velocity to be V_phi_sun= 251.4+-1.7 km/s. These values, when combined with recent measurements of the Galactic rotation curve, yield the distance of corotation, 6.3 < R_(CR) [kpc] < 6.8, the outer Lindblad resonance (OLR), 10.5 < R_(OLR) [kpc] < 11.5, and the higher order, m=4, OLR, 8.5 < R_(OLR_4) [kpc] < 9.0. The measured low pattern speed provides strong evidence for the long-slow bar scenario.