English

Highest-Resolution Rotation Curve of the Inner Milky Way proving the Galactic Shock Wave

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2021-08-18 v1

Abstract

We present a rotation curve (RC) of the inner Galaxy of the 1st quadrant at 10degl50deg (R=1.36.2 kpc)10\deg \le l \le 50\deg ~ (R=1.3-6.2~{\rm kpc}) with the highest spatial (2 pc) and velocity (1.3 km/s) resolutions. We used the 12{^{12}}CO(J=1-0)-line survey data observed with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope at an effective angular resolution of 20"20" (originally 15")15"), and applied the tangent-velocity method to the longitude-velocity diagrams by employing the Gaussian deconvolution of the individual CO-line profiles. A number of RC bumps, or local variation of rotation velocity, with velocity amplitudes ±9\pm \sim 9 km/s and radial scale length 0.51\sim 0.5-1 kpc are superposed on the mean rotation velocity. The prominent velocity bump and corresponding density variation around R4R\sim 4 kpc in the tangential direction of the Scutum arm (4-kpc molecular arm) is naturally explained by an ordinary galactic shock wave in a spiral arm with small pitch angle, not necessarily requiring a bar-induced strong shock. Tables of RC are available at the PASJ supplementary data site and http://www.ioa.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~sofue/h-rot.htm.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.04975,
  title  = {Highest-Resolution Rotation Curve of the Inner Milky Way proving the Galactic Shock Wave},
  author = {Yoshiaki Sofue},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.04975},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

PASJ Letters accepted, 6 pages, 5 figures