Local kinematics of K and M giants from Coravel/Hipparcos/Tycho-2 data. Revisiting the concept of superclusters

Abstract

The availability of the Hipparcos Catalogue triggered many kinematic and dynamical studies of the solar neighbourhood. Nevertheless, those studies generally lacked the third component of the space velocities, i.e., the radial velocities. This work presents the kinematic analysis of 5952 K and 739 M giants in the solar neighbourhood which includes for the first time radial velocity data from a large survey performed with the CORAVEL spectrovelocimeter. It also uses proper motions from the Tycho-2 catalogue, which are expected to be more accurate than the Hipparcos ones. The UV-plane constructed from these data for the stars with precise parallaxes reveals a rich small-scale structure, with several clumps corresponding to the Hercules stream, the Sirius moving group, and the Hyades and Pleiades superclusters. A maximum-likelihood method, based on a bayesian approach, has been applied to the data, in order to make full use of all the available stars and to derive the kinematic properties of these subgroups. Isochrones in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram reveal a very wide range of ages for stars belonging to these groups. These groups are most probably related to the dynamical perturbation by transient spiral waves rather than to cluster remnants. A possible explanation for the presence of young clusters in the same area of the UV-plane is that they have been put there by the spiral wave associated with their formation, while the kinematics of the older stars of our sample has also been disturbed by the same wave. The term "dynamical stream" for the kinematic groups is thus more appropriate than the traditional term "supercluster" since it involves stars of different ages, not born at the same place nor at the same time.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in A&