312 research outputs found
Understanding the spiral structure of the Milky Way using the local kinematic groups
We study the spiral arm influence on the solar neighbourhood stellar
kinematics. As the nature of the Milky Way (MW) spiral arms is not completely
determined, we study two models: the Tight-Winding Approximation (TWA) model,
which represents a local approximation, and a model with self-consistent
material arms named PERLAS. This is a mass distribution with more abrupt
gravitational forces. We perform test particle simulations after tuning the two
models to the observational range for the MW spiral arm properties. We explore
the effects of the arm properties and find that a significant region of the
allowed parameter space favours the appearance of kinematic groups. The
velocity distribution is mostly sensitive to the relative spiral arm phase and
pattern speed. In all cases the arms induce strong kinematic imprints for
pattern speeds around 17 km/s/kpc (close to the 4:1 inner resonance) but no
substructure is induced close to corotation. The groups change significantly if
one moves only ~0.6 kpc in galactocentric radius, but ~2 kpc in azimuth. The
appearance time of each group is different, ranging from 0 to more than 1 Gyr.
Recent spiral arms can produce strong kinematic structures. The stellar
response to the two potential models is significantly different near the Sun,
both in density and kinematics. The PERLAS model triggers more substructure for
a larger range of pattern speed values. The kinematic groups can be used to
reduce the current uncertainty about the MW spiral structure and to test
whether this follows the TWA. However, groups such as the observed ones in the
solar vicinity can be reproduced by different parameter combinations. Data from
velocity distributions at larger distances are needed for a definitive
constraint.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables; acccepted for publication in MNRA
Absolute proper motion of the Galactic open cluster M67
We derived the absolute proper motion (PM) of the old, solar-metallicity
Galactic open cluster M67 using observations collected with CFHT (1997) and
with LBT (2007). About 50 galaxies with relatively sharp nuclei allow us to
determine the absolute PM of the cluster. We find (mu_alpha
cos(delta),mu_delta)_J2000.0 = (-9.6+/-1.1,-3.7+/-0.8) mas/yr. By adopting a
line-of-sight velocity of 33.8+/-0.2 km/s, and assuming a distance of 815+/-50
pc, we explore the influence of the Galactic potential, with and without the
bar and/or spiral arms, on the galactic orbit of the cluster.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, and 3 tables. Published in Astronomy and
Astrophysics, Volume 513, id.A51
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