English

Mapping the Milky Way with LAMOST III: Complicated spatial structure in the outer disc

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2018-07-04 v1

Abstract

We present {complexity} of the Galactic outer disc {by fitting the stellar volume densities of the red giant branch stars with a two-disc component model}. {The discs are confirmed to} extend to R19R\sim19\,kpc. The radial density profile of the discs shows {two breaks at R11R\sim11 and 14\sim14\,kpc, respectively, which} separate the radial profile into three segments with different scale lengths of 2.12±0.262.12\pm0.26, 1.18±0.081.18\pm0.08, and 2.722.72\,kpc at R<11R<11, 11R1411\leq R\leq14, and R>14R>14\,kpc, respectively. The first {break} is likely due to the sudden drop in the radial profile of the thin disc, which may be an evidence of the radial migration. {Beyond 1414\,kpc, the thick disc becomes prominent and the transition from thin to thick disc leads to the second break.} This implies that the geometrically defined thick disc is more {radially} extended than the thin disc. This is also supported by the larger scale length of the thick disc than that of the thin disc. Meanwhile, {the scale height of the thicker component increases from 0.6370.036+0.0560.637_{-0.036}^{+0.056} at R=8R=8 to 1.2840.079+0.0861.284_{-0.079}^{+0.086}\,kpc at R=19R=19\,kpc, showing an intensive flared disc}. Moreover, rich substructures are displayed in the residuals of the stellar density. Among them, the substructures D14+2.0D14+2.0 and O141.5O14-1.5 show a north-south asymmetry, which can be essentially explained by southward shifting of the thick disc. However, no significant overdensity is found for the Monoceros ring. Finally, the thick disc shows a ripple-like feature with unclear origin at 9<R<10.59<R<10.5\,kpc.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1804.10485,
  title  = {Mapping the Milky Way with LAMOST III: Complicated spatial structure in the outer disc},
  author = {Hai-Feng Wang and Chao Liu and Yan Xu and Jun-Chen Wan and Licai Deng},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.10485},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

15 pages, 12 figures, accepted by MNRAS

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:38:01.380Z