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Register a new userKinematics beats dust: unveiling nested substructure in the perturbed outer disc of the Milky Way
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We use $Gaia$ eDR3 data and legacy spectroscopic surveys to map the Milky Way disc substructure towards the Galactic Anticenter at heliocentric distances $dgeq10,rm{kpc}$. We report the discovery of multiple previously undetected new filaments embedded in the outer disc in highly extincted regions. Stars in these over-densities have distance gradients expected for disc material and move on disc-like orbits with $v_{phi}sim170-230,rm{km,s^{-1}}$, showing small spreads in energy. Such a morphology argues against a quiescently growing Galactic thin disc. Some of these structures are interpreted as excited outer disc material, kicked up by satellite impacts and currently undergoing phase-mixing (feathers). Due to the long timescale in the outer disc regions, these structures can stay coherent in configuration space over several Gyrs. We nevertheless note that some of these structures could also be folds in the perturbed disc seen in projection from the Suns location. A full 6D phase-space characterization and age dating of these structure should help distinguish between the two possible morphologies.
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We present the peculiar in-plane velocities derived from the LAMOST red clump stars, which are purified and separated by a novel approach into two groups with different ages. The samples are mostly contributed around the Galactic anti-centre direction such that we are able to map the radial profiles of the radial and azimuthal velocities in the outer disc. From the variations of the in-plane velocities with the Galactocentric radius for the younger and older populations, we find that both radial and azimuthal velocities are not axisymmetric at $8<R<14,kpc$. The two red clump populations show that the mean radial velocity is negative within $Rsim9,kpc$ and positive beyond. This is likely because of the perturbation induced by the rotating bar. The cross-zero radius, $Rsim9$, kpc, essentially indicates the rough location of the outer Lindblad resonance (OLR) radius. Given the circular speed of 238,km$rm s^{-1}$, then the pattern speed of the bar can be approximated as $45$,km$rm s^{-1}rm kpc^{-1}$. The young red clump stars show larger mean radial velocity than the old population by about 3$,kmrm s^{-1}$ between $Rsim9$ and 12,kpc. This is possibly because the younger population is more sensitive to the perturbation than the older one. The radial profiles of the mean azimuthal velocity for the two populations show an interesting U-shape, i.e. at $R<10.5,kpc$, the azimuthal velocity declines with $R$ by about 10$,kmrm s^{-1}$, while at $R>10.5$ it increases with $R$ to 240-245$,kmrm s^{-1}$. It is not clear why the mean azimuthal velocity shows the U-shape along the Galactic anti-centre direction. Meanwhile, the azimuthal velocity for the younger population is slightly larger than the older one and the difference moderately declines with $R$. Beyond $Rsim12,kpc$, the azimuthal velocities for the two populations are indistinguishable.
We construct a new sample of ~1700 solar neighbourhood halo subdwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, selected using a reduced proper motion diagram. Radial velocities come from the SDSS spectra and proper motions from the light-motion curve catalogue of Bramich et al. (2008). Using a photometric parallax relation to estimate distances gives us the full phase-space coordinates. Typical velocity errors are in the range 30-50 km/s. This halo sample is one of the largest constructed to-date and the disc contamination is at a level of < 1 per cent. This enables us to calculate the halo velocity dispersion to excellent accuracy. We find that the velocity dispersion tensor is aligned in spherical polar coordinates and that (sigma_r, sigma_phi, sigma_theta) = (143 pm 2, 82 pm 2, 77 pm 2) km/s. The stellar halo exhibits no net rotation, although the distribution of v_phi shows tentative evidence for asymmetry. The kinematics are consistent with a mildly flattened stellar density falling with distance like r^{-3.75}. Using the full phase-space coordinates, we look for signs of kinematic substructure in the stellar halo. We find evidence for four discrete overdensities localised in angular momentum and suggest that they may be possible accretion remnants. The most prominent is the solar neighbourhood stream previously identified by Helmi et al. (1999), but the remaining three are new. One of these overdensities is potentially associated with a group of four globular clusters (NGC5466, NGC6934, M2 and M13) and raises the possibility that these could have been accreted as part of a much larger progenitor.
To illustrate the potential of GDR2, we provide a first look at the kinematics of the Milky Way disc, within a radius of several kiloparsecs around the Sun. We benefit for the first time from a sample of 6.4 million F-G-K stars with full 6D phase-space coordinates, precise parallaxes, and precise Galactic cylindrical velocities . From this sample, we extracted a sub-sample of 3.2 million giant stars to map the velocity field of the Galactic disc from $sim$5~kpc to $sim$13~kpc from the Galactic centre and up to 2~kpc above and below the plane. We also study the distribution of 0.3 million solar neighbourhood stars ($r < 200$~pc), with median velocity uncertainties of 0.4~km/s, in velocity space and use the full sample to examine how the over-densities evolve in more distant regions. GDR2 allows us to draw 3D maps of the Galactocentric median velocities and velocity dispersions with unprecedented accuracy, precision, and spatial resolution. The maps show the complexity and richness of the velocity field of the galactic disc. We observe streaming motions in all the components of the velocities as well as patterns in the velocity dispersions. For example, we confirm the previously reported negative and positive galactocentric radial velocity gradients in the inner and outer disc, respectively. Here, we see them as part of a non-axisymmetric kinematic oscillation, and we map its azimuthal and vertical behaviour. We also witness a new global arrangement of stars in the velocity plane of the solar neighbourhood and in distant regions in which stars are organised in thin substructures with the shape of circular arches that are oriented approximately along the horizontal direction in the $U-V$ plane. Moreover, in distant regions, we see variations in the velocity substructures more clearly than ever before, in particular, variations in the velocity of the Hercules stream. (abridged)
By means of N-body simulations we study the response of a galactic disc to a minor merger event. We find that non-self-gravitating, spiral-like features are induced in the thick disc. As we have shown in a previous work, this ringing also leaves an imprint in velocity space (the u-v plane) in small spatial regions, such as the solar neighbourhood. As the disc relaxes after the event, clumps in the u-v plane get closer with time, allowing us to estimate the time of impact. In addition to confirming the possibility of this diagnostic, here we show that in a more realistic scenario, the in-fall trajectory of the perturber gives rise to an azimuthal dependence of the structure in phase-space. We also find that the space defined by the energy and angular momentum of stars is a better choice than velocity space, as clumps remain visible even in large local volumes. This makes their observational detection much easier since one need not be restricted to a small spatial volume. We show that information about the time of impact, the mass of the perturber, and its trajectory is stored in the kinematics of disc stars.
In Debattista et al. (2015), we proposed that a kiloparsec-scale nuclear disc is responsible for the high-velocity secondary peak in the stellar line-of-sight velocity distributions (LOSVDs) seen at positive longitudes in the bulge by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). Here, we make further qualitative but distinctive predictions of the kinematic properties of a nuclear disc, including for the LOSVDs at negative longitudes (which APOGEE-2 will observe) and examine the proper motions throughout the disc. Since a nuclear ring is also able to produce similar high-velocity LOSVD peaks, we present predictions for the proper motion signatures which distinguish between a nuclear disc and a nuclear ring. We also demonstrate that the stars in a nuclear disc, which would be on x2 orbits perpendicular to the bar, can remain on these orbits for a long time and can therefore be old. We show that such (old) nuclear discs of comparable size exist in external galaxies.
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