Aims: We investigate whether the cylindrical (galactocentric) radial velocity gradient of ~ -3 km/s/kpc, directed radially from the Galactic center and recently observed in the stars of the solar neighborhood with the RAVE survey, can be explained by the resonant effects of the bar near the solar neighborhood.
Methods: We compared the results of test particle simulations of the Milky Way with a potential that includes a rotating bar with observations from the RAVE survey. To this end we applied the RAVE selection function to the simulations and convolved these with the characteristic RAVE errors. We explored different "solar neighborhoods" in the simulations, as well as different bar models
Results: We find that the bar induces a negative radial velocity gradient at every height from the Galactic plane, outside the outer Lindblad resonance and for angles from the long axis of the bar compatible with the current estimates. The selection function and errors do not wash away the gradient, but often make it steeper, especially near the Galactic plane, because this is where the RAVE survey is less radially extended. No gradient in the vertical velocity ispresent in our simulations, from which we may conclude that this cannot be induced by the bar.
In this note I show how the recently suggested membership of the open cluster Gaia 1 to the Galactic thick disk is based on incorrect assumptions about the structure of the disk itself, and neglect well-known observational evidences on the disk warp and flare.
The nucleus of our nearest, large galactic neighbor, M31, contains an eccentric nuclear disk--a disk of stars on eccentric, apsidally-aligned orbits around a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Previous studies of eccentric nuclear disks considered only an isolated disk, and did not study their dynamics under galaxy mergers (particularly a perturbing SMBH). Here, we present the first study of how eccentric disks are affected by a galactic merger. We perform N-body simulations to study the disk under a range of different possible SMBH initial conditions. A second SMBH in the disk always disrupts it…
Using a sample of nearly 140,000 red clump stars selected from the LAMOST and Gaia Galactic surveys, we have mapped mean vertical velocity $\overline{V_{z}}$ in the $X$-$Y$ plane for a large volume of the Galactic disk (6 $< R < 16$ kpc; $-20 <ϕ< 50^{\circ}$; $|Z| < 1$ kpc). A clear signature where $\overline{V_{z}}$ increases with $R$ is detected for the chemically thin disk. The signature for the thick disk is however not significant, in line with the hot nature of this disk component. For the thin disk, the warp signature shows significant variations in both radial and azimuthal directions,…
We investigate the three-dimensional asymmetrical kinematics and present time stamps of the Milky Way disk between Galactocentric distances of $R=12$ and 15 \,kpc, using red clump stars selected from the LAMOST Galactic survey, also with proper motion measurements provided by the Gaia DR2. We discover velocity substructure above the Galactic plane corresponding to a density dip found recently ("south-middle opposite" density structure[R $\sim$ 12-15 \,kpc, Z $\sim$ 1.5 \,kpc] discovered in \citet{Wang2018b, Wang2018c}) in the radial and azimuthal velocity. For the vertical velocity, we detect …
A typical galactic disk is observed to have a finite thickness. Here, we present the study of the physical effect of introduction of finite thickness on the generation of small-scale spiral arms by swing amplification in a differentially rotating galactic disk. The galactic disk is modelled first as a one-fluid system, and then as a gravitationally-coupled two-fluid (stars and gas) system where each fluid is taken as isothermal, and corotating with each other. We derived the equations governing the evolution of growth of the non-axisymmetric perturbations in a sheared frame of reference while …
The distribution of sites where globular clusters have crossed the Galactic disk during the last 100 million years has been analyzed using the most recent kinematic data for 133 globular clusters (GCs). Three GCs (NGC 6341, NGC 7078, and $ω$ Cen) whose distances between the positions where they crossed the Galactic disk and trajectories of the Gould Belt are less than 20\% of their heliocentric distances at the crossing time (82, 98, and 96 million years ago, respectively) have been identified. For each of the clusters, this was their next to last, rather than their last, crossing of the Galac…
We present a novel method for determining the total matter surface density of the Galactic disk by analysing the kinematics of a dynamically cold stellar stream that passes through or close to the Galactic plane. The method relies on the fact that the vertical component of energy for such stream stars is approximately constant, such that their vertical positions and vertical velocities are interrelated via the matter density of the Galactic disk. By testing our method on mock data stellar streams, with realistic phase-space dispersions and Gaia uncertainties, we demonstrate that it is applicab…
We present the measurements of Faraday rotation for 477 pulsars observed by the Parkes 64-m radio telescope and the Green Bank 100-m radio telescope. Using these results along with previous measurements for pulsars and extra-galactic sources, we analyse the structure of the large-scale magnetic field in the Galactic disk. Comparison of rotation measures of pulsars in the disk at different distances as well as with rotation measures of background radio sources beyond the disk reveals large-scale reversals of the field directions between spiral arms and interarm regions. We develop a model for t…
We have applied our method for weighing the Galactic disk using phase-space spirals to the Gaia EDR3 proper motion sample. For stars in distant regions of the Galactic disk, the latitudinal proper motion has a close projection with vertical velocity, such that the phase-space spiral in the plane of vertical position and vertical velocity can be observed without requiring that all stars have available radial velocity information. We divided the Galactic plane into 360 separate data samples, each corresponding to an area cell in the Galactic plane in the distance range of 1.4-3.4 kpc, with an ap…
Excitation of coupled stellar motions in the Galactic Disk by orbiting satellites
我们使用一组高分辨率的N体模拟银河系盘研究其相互作用的人口的卫星宇宙学预测。一个模拟表明，具有不同速度的大质量卫星多次通过磁盘产生摆动，在恒星磁盘的正面投影中出现环。它们还在盘的外部产生耀斑，并通过弯曲波逐渐加热盘。一个不同的数值实验表明，一个像人马座矮星系一样大的卫星穿过盘将驱动低密度区域恒星的水平和垂直耦合振荡，伴随着小的显著的相关加热。这个实验表明，在这些低密度区域的恒星的垂直偏移可以超过1千秒差距的太阳附近，类似于最近在当地检测到的相干垂直振荡。它们也可以引起非零的垂直流运动，大到10-20 km s $^{-1}$，与最近在银河系盘中的观测结果一致。这种现象表现为局部环，并伴有适度的盘加热。
Collisions between Dark Matter Confined High Velocity Clouds and Magnetized Galactic Disks: The Smith Cloud
银河系的高速云（HVC）可能包括一个被暗物质迷你晕限制并向银河系盘下落的子群。本文首次对以暗物质为主的HVC与弱磁化星系盘碰撞进行了磁流体动力学模拟研究。我们的HVC的重子质量为$5 \times 10^6\,$ M $_{\odot}$，暗物质微晕质量为0、$3 \times 10^8$或$1 \times 10^9\,$ M $_{\odot}$。它们是以史密斯云为模型的，据说史密斯云在7000万年前与圆盘相撞。我们发现，在所有情况下，云与星系盘的碰撞都会在星系盘上产生一个洞，完全分散云，并在星系盘的远端形成一个气泡状结构。相反，当存在时，暗物质微晕继续沿着其轨迹畅通无阻。之后，随着微晕穿过气泡结构和星系晕，它在重子物质中吸积到$6.0 \times 10^5\,$ M $_{\odot}$，这取决于磁场和微晕引力的强度。这些模拟表明，如果史密斯云与一个暗物质微晕有关，并与银河系盘碰撞，那么微晕已经吸积了观测到的气体。然而，如果史密斯云是暗物质自由的，它是第一次接近磁盘。这些模拟还表明，根据磁场的强度，暗物质要么集中在云的头部，要么集中在云的附近，这一点可以为间接的暗物质搜索提供信息。
We report measurements of parallax and proper motion for four 22 GHz water maser sources as part of VERA Outer Rotation Curve project. All sources show Galactic latitudes of $>$ 2$^{\circ}$ and Galactocentric distances of $>$ 11 kpc at the Galactic longitude range of 95$^{\circ}$ $< l <$ 126$^{\circ}$. The sources trace the Galactic warp reaching to 200$\sim$400 pc, and indicate the signature of the warp to 600 pc toward the north Galactic pole. The new results along with previous results in the literature show the maximum height of the Galactic warp is increased with Galactocentric distance. …
Mapping the Galactic disk with the LAMOST and Gaia Red clump sample: VIII: Mapping the kinematics of the Galactic disk using mono-age and mono-abundance stellar populations
We found that an intermediate velocity cloud (IVC) IVC 86-36 in HI 21 cm emission shows a head-tail distribution toward the Galactic plane with marked parallel filamentary streamers, which is extended over 40 degrees in the sky. The distance of IVC 86-36 is constrained to be less than ~3 kpc from absorption of a background star as determined from opticalspectroscopy. There is a bridge feature in velocity between the IVC and the local ISM with velocity separation of ~50 km s-1, which may indicate dynamical interaction of the IVC with the disk. If the interaction is correct, the distance estimat…
Ever since a thick disk was proposed to explain the vertical distribution of the Milky Way disk stars, its origin has been a recurrent question. We aim to answer this question by inspecting 19 disk galaxies with stellar mass greater than $10^{10}\,\rm M_\odot$ in recent cosmological high-resolution zoom-in simulations: Galactica and NewHorizon. The thin and thick disks are reasonably reproduced by the simulations with scale heights and luminosity ratios as observed. We then spatially classify the thin and thick disks and find that the thick disk stars are older, metal-poorer, kinematically-hot…
Previous studies suggest that the estimated maximum accretion rate from approaching high velocity clouds (HVCs) on the Galactic disk can be up to ~ 0.4 solar mass per year. In this study, we point out that the hydrodynamic interaction between the HVCs and the Galactic disk is not considered in the traditional method of estimating the infall rate and therefore the true supply rate of fuel from HVCs can be different from the suggested value depending on the physical configurations of HVCs including density, velocity, and distance. We choose 11 HVC complexes and construct 4 different infall model…
From the derived stellar density profile using LAMOST giant stars, we find that the Galactic disk does not show truncation or break, but smoothly transit to the halo from 19 kpc. The scale length of the outer disk is only $1.6\pm0.1$\,kpc, substantially smaller than previous results. This implies that the shapes of the inner and outer disk are different. Meanwhile, the disk flaring is not only found in older populations, but also in younger population. Moreover, the vertical oscillations of the disk are identified in a wide range or $R$ from 8 to 14 kpc. We also find that the velocity dispersi…
The stellar mass, size and rotational velocity of galactic disks all grow from redshift ~2 to the present by amounts that are estimated from observationally derived scaling relations. The product of these three quantities, the angular momentum of stellar disks, is then estimated to grow by a remarkably large factor, between ~20 and ~50, whereas other evidences suggest a more moderate increase. This requires that the specific angular momentum of the accreted gas should systematically increase with time while remaining co-rotational with the disk over most of the last ~10 Gyr. Thus, the baryonic…
The problem of the chemical composition gradient in the galactic disk is studied based on a sample of metallicity estimates of open star clusters, using Gaia DR2-improved distance estimates. A clearly non-monotonic variation was observed in the average metallicity of clusters with increasing galactocentric distance. One can clearly see the metallicity jump of 0.22 in [Fe/H] at a Galactocentric distance of about 9.5 kpc, which appears to be linked to the outer boundary of the thinnest and youngest component of the galactic disk. The absence of a significant metallicity gradient in the internal …
We consider how the gravity of the Galactic disk and the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) modifies the radial motions of hypervelocity stars (HVSs) ejected from the Galactic Center. For typical HVSs ejected towards low (high) Galactic latitudes, the disk bends trajectories by up to 30 degrees (3-10 deg). For many lines-of-sight through the Galaxy, the LMC produces similar and sometimes larger deflections. Bound HVSs suffer larger deflections than unbound HVSs. Gravitational focusing by the LMC also generates a factor of two overdensity along the line-of-sight towards the LMC. With large enough sam…
