Approximate integrals of motion

We determine approximate numerical integrals of motion of 2D symmetric Hamiltonian systems. We detail for a few gravitational potentials the conditions under which quasi-integrals are obtained as polynomial series. We show that each of these potentials has a wide range of regular orbits that are accurately modelled with a unique approximate integral of motion.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Discovery of high proper motion ancient white dwarfs: nearby massive compact halo objects?

We present the discovery and spectroscopic identification of two very high proper motion ancient white dwarf stars, found in a systematic proper motion survey. Their kinematics and apparent magnitude clearly indicate that they are halo members, while their optical spectra are almost identical to the recently identified cool Halo white dwarf WD0346+246. Canonical stellar halo models predict a white dwarf volume density of two orders of magnitude less than the approx 7*10^{-4} Solar masses per pc^{-3} inferred from this survey. With the caveat that the sample size is very small, it appears that a significant fraction, about 10%, of the local dark matter halo is in the form of very old, cool, white dwarfs.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL; references adde

Modeling the evolution of the Milky Way from Gaia DR3

Galactic stellar populations are good tracers of the history of the Milky Way. Their study via Gaia astrometric and photometric data should allow to pinpoint the star formation history (SFH) in the disc and halo in a self-consistent dynamical model. Population synthesis models are efficient tools to measure the SFH from the distribution of the stars in the Hess diagram, thanks to different locations of stars according to their age and metallicity. We present the iterative strategy planned to fit the IMF and the SFH of the thin disk using the BGMFast scheme (del Alcazar et al., see poster) based on approximate bayesian computation (ABC) performed with HPC tools and, at the same time, the attempt to keep the self-consistent dynamical model by fitting the gravitational potential of the Milky Way to the stellar kinematics and densities from Gaia data (Robin et al., 2022)

The imprints of the Galactic Bar on the Thick Disk with RAVE

We study the kinematics of a local sample of stars, located within a cylinder of 500 pc radius centered on the Sun, in the RAVE data set. We find clear asymmetries in the v R v∞ velocity distributions of thin and thick disk stars: there are more stars moving radially outward for low azimuthal velocities and more radially inward for high azimuthal velocities. Such asymmetries have been previously reported for the thin disk as being due to the Galactic bar, but this is the first time that the same type of structures are seen in the thick disk. Our findings imply that the velocities of thick-disk stars should no longer be described by Schwarzschilds, multivariate Gaussian or purely axisymmetric distributions. Furthermore, the nature of previously reported substructures in the thick disk needs to be revisited as these could be associated with dynamical resonances rather than to accretion events. It is clear that dynamical models of the Galaxy must fit the 3D velocity distributions of the disks, rather than the projected 1D, if we are to understand the Galaxy fully

Comment on "Evidence for dark matter in the inner Milky Way"

This is a brief rebuttal to arXiv:1502.03821, which claims to provide the first observational proof of dark matter interior to the solar circle. We point out that this result is not new, and can be traced back at least a quarter century.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures. In this version we add a figure from a 1998 paper that shows the same result that arXiv:1502.03821 claims to be novel. We also add a short note rebutting arXiv:1503.08784 which was written in response to the first versio

Chemical separation of disc components using RAVE

© 2016 The Authors. We present evidence from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) survey of chemically separated, kinematically distinct disc components in the solar neighbourhood.We apply probabilistic chemical selection criteria to separate our sample into a-low ('thin disc') and a-high ('thick disc') sequences. Using newly derived distances,which will be utilized in the upcoming RAVE DR5, we explore the kinematic trends as a function of metallicity for each of the disc components. For our a-low disc, we find a negative trend in the mean rotational velocity (Vf) as a function of iron abundance ([Fe/H]). We measure a positive gradient ∂Vφ/∂[Fe/H] for the a-high disc, consistent with results from high-resolution surveys.We also find differences between the a-low and a-high discs in all three components of velocity dispersion.We discuss the implications of an a-low, metal-rich population originating from the inner Galaxy, where the orbits of these stars have been significantly altered by radial mixing mechanisms in order to bring them into the solar neighbourhood. The probabilistic separation we propose can be extended to other data sets for which the accuracy in [a/Fe] is not sufficient to disentangle the chemical disc components a priori. For such data sets which will also have significant overlap with Gaia DR1, we can therefore make full use of the improved parallax and proper motion data as it becomes available to investigate kinematic trends in these chemical disc components

Correlations between age, kinematics, and chemistry as seen by the RAVE survey

We explore the connections between stellar age, chemistry, and kinematics across a Galactocentric distance of 7.5 < R(kpc) < 9.0, using a sample of ∼12 000 intermediate-mass (FGK) turn-off stars observed with the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) survey. The kinematics of this sample are determined using radial velocity measurements from RAVE, and parallax and proper motion measurements from the Tycho–Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). In addition, ages for RAVE stars are determined using a Bayesian method, taking TGAS parallaxes as a prior. We divide our sample into young (0 < τ < 3 Gyr) and old (8 < τ < 13 Gyr) populations, and then consider different metallicity bins for each of these age groups. We find significant differences in kinematic trends of young and old, metal-poor and metal-rich, stellar populations. In particular, we find a strong metallicity dependence in the mean Galactocentric radial velocity as a function of radius (∂VR/∂R) for young stars, with metal-rich stars having a much steeper gradient than metal-poor stars. For ∂Vϕ/∂R, young, metal-rich stars significantly lag the LSR with a slightly positive gradient, while metal-poor stars show a negative gradient above the LSR. We interpret these findings as correlations between metallicity and the relative contributions of the non-axisymmetries in the Galactic gravitational potential (the spiral arms and the bar) to perturb stellar orbits.∂Vϕ/∂R, young, metal-rich stars significantly lag the LSR with a slightly positive gradient, while metal-poor stars show a negative gradient above the LSR. We interpret these findings as correlations between metallicity and the relative contributions of the non-axisymmetries in the Galactic gravitational potential (the spiral arms and the bar) to perturb stellar orbits

The remnants of galaxy formation from a panoramic survey of the region around M31

In hierarchical cosmological models, galaxies grow in mass through the continual accretion of smaller ones. The tidal disruption of these systems is expected to result in loosely bound stars surrounding the galaxy, at distances that reach $10 - 100$ times the radius of the central disk. The number, luminosity and morphology of the relics of this process provide significant clues to galaxy formation history, but obtaining a comprehensive survey of these components is difficult because of their intrinsic faintness and vast extent. Here we report a panoramic survey of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We detect stars and coherent structures that are almost certainly remnants of dwarf galaxies destroyed by the tidal field of M31. An improved census of their surviving counterparts implies that three-quarters of M31's satellites brighter than $M_V < -6$ await discovery. The brightest companion, Triangulum (M33), is surrounded by a stellar structure that provides persuasive evidence for a recent encounter with M31. This panorama of galaxy structure directly confirms the basic tenets of the hierarchical galaxy formation model and reveals the shared history of M31 and M33 in the unceasing build-up of galaxies.Comment: Published in Nature. Supplementary movie available at https://www.astrosci.ca/users/alan/PANDAS/Latest%20news%3A%20movie%20of%20orbit.htm