Near infrared images from the COBE satellite presented the first clear evidence that our Milky Way galaxy contains a boxy shaped bulge. Recent years have witnessed a gradual paradigm shift in the formation and evolution of the Galactic bulge. Bulges
were commonly believed to form in the dynamical violence of galaxy mergers. However, it has become increasingly clear that the main body of the Milky Way bulge is not a classical bulge made by previous major mergers, instead it appears to be a bar seen somewhat end-on. The Milky Way bar can form naturally from a precursor disk and thicken vertically by the internal firehose/buckling instability, giving rise to the boxy appearance. This picture is supported by many lines of evidence, including the asymmetric parallelogram shape, the strong cylindrical rotation (i.e., nearly constant rotation regardless of the height above the disk plane), the existence of an intriguing X-shaped structure in the bulge, and perhaps the metallicity gradients. We review the major theoretical models and techniques to understand the Milky Way bulge. Despite the progresses in recent theoretical attempts, a complete bulge formation model that explains the full kinematics and metallicity distribution is still not fully understood. Upcoming large surveys are expected to shed new light on the formation history of the Galactic bulge.
We explore the kinematics (both the radial velocity and the proper motion) of the vertical X-shaped feature in the Milky Way with an N-body bar/bulge model. From the solar perspective, the distance distribution of particles is double-peaked in fields
passing through the X-shape. The separation and amplitude ratio between the two peaks qualitatively match the observed trends towards the Galactic bulge. We confirm clear signatures of cylindrical rotation in the pattern of mean radial velocity across the bar/bulge region. We also find possible imprints of coherent orbital motion inside the bar structure in the radial velocity distribution along l=0 degree, where the near and far sides of the bar/bulge show excesses of approaching and receding particles. The coherent orbital motion is also reflected in the slight displacement of the zero-velocity-line in the mean radial velocity, and the displacement of the maximum/minimum in the mean longitudinal proper motion across the bulge region. We find some degree of anisotropy in the stellar velocity within the X-shape, but the underlying orbital family of the X-shape cannot be clearly distinguished. Two potential applications of the X-shape in previous literature are tested, i.e., bulge rotation and Galactic center measurements. We find that the proper motion difference between the two sides of the X-shape can be used to estimate the mean azimuthal streaming motion of the bulge, but not the pattern speed of the bar. We also demonstrate that the Galactic center can be located with the X-shape, but the accuracy depends on the fitting scheme, the number of fields, and their latitudinal coverage.
A vertical X-shaped structure was recently reported in the Galactic bulge. Here we present evidence of a similar X-shaped structure in the Shen et al. (2010) bar/boxy bulge model that simultaneously matches the stellar kinematics successfully. The X-
shaped structure is found in the central region of our bar/boxy bulge model, and is qualitatively consistent with the observed one in many aspects. End-to-end separations of the X-shaped structure in the radial and vertical directions are roughly 3 kpc and 1.8 kpc, respectively. The X-shaped structure contains about 7% of light in the boxy bulge region, but it is significant enough to be identified in observations. An X-shaped structure naturally arises in the formation of bar/boxy bulges, and is mainly associated with orbits trapped around the vertically-extended x_1 family. Like the bar in our model, the X-shaped structure tilts away from the Sun--Galactic center line by 20 degrees. The X-shaped structure becomes increasingly symmetric about the disk plane, so the observed symmetry may indicate that it formed at least a few billion years ago. The existence of the vertical X-shaped structure suggests that the formation of the Milky Way bulge is shaped mainly by internal disk dynamical instabilities.
The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey (CGS) is a comprehensive investigation of the physical properties of a complete, representative sample of 605 bright (B_T <= 12.9 mag) galaxies in the southern hemisphere. This contribution describes the isophotal an
alysis of the broadband (BVRI) optical imaging component of the project. We pay close attention to sky subtraction, which is particularly challenging for some of the large galaxies in our sample. Extensive crosschecks with internal and external data confirm that our calibration and sky subtraction techniques are robust with respect to the quoted measurement uncertainties. We present a uniform catalog of one-dimensional radial profiles of surface brightness and geometric parameters, as well as integrated colors and color gradients. Composite profiles highlight the tremendous diversity of brightness distributions found in disk galaxies and their dependence on Hubble type. A significant fraction of S0 and spiral galaxies exhibit non-exponential profiles in their outer regions. We perform Fourier decomposition of the isophotes to quantify non-axisymmetric deviations in the light distribution. We use the geometric parameters, in conjunction with the amplitude and phase of the m=2 Fourier mode, to identify bars and quantify their size and strength. Spiral arm strengths are characterized using the m=2 Fourier profiles and structure maps. Finally, we utilize the information encoded in the m=1 Fourier profiles to measure disk lopsidedness. The databases assembled here and in Paper I lay the foundation for forthcoming scientific applications of CGS.
The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey (CGS) is a long-term program to investigate the photometric and spectroscopic properties of a statistically complete sample of 605 bright (B_T < 12.9 mag), southern (Dec. < 0) galaxies using the facilities at Las Cam
panas Observatory. This paper, the first in a series, outlines the scientific motivation of CGS, defines the sample, and describes the technical aspects of the optical broadband (BVRI) imaging component of the survey, including details of the observing program, data reduction procedures, and calibration strategy. The overall quality of the images is quite high, in terms of resolution (median seeing 1), field of view (8.9 X 8.9), and depth (median limiting surface brightness 27.5, 26.9, 26.4, and 25.3 mag/arcsec2 in the B, V, R, and I bands, respectively). We prepare a digital image atlas showing several different renditions of the data, including three-color composites, star-cleaned images, stacked images to enhance faint features, structure maps to highlight small-scale features, and color index maps suitable for studying the spatial variation of stellar content and dust. In anticipation of upcoming science analyses, we tabulate an extensive set of global properties for the galaxy sample. These include optical isophotal and photometric parameters derived from CGS itself, as well as published information on multiwavelength (ultraviolet, U-band, near-infrared, far-infrared) photometry, internal kinematics (central stellar velocity dispersions, disk rotational velocities), environment (distance to nearest neighbor, tidal parameter, group or cluster membership), and H I content. The digital images and science-level data products will be made publicly accessible to the community.
