English

The Galactic disc phase spirals at different Galactic positions revealed by Gaia and LAMOST data

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2019-05-29 v1

Abstract

We have investigated the distributions of stellar azimuthal and radial velocity components VΦV_{\Phi} and VRV_{R} in the vertical position-velocity plane ZZ-VZV_{Z} across the Galactic disc of 6.34R12.346.34 \lesssim R \lesssim 12.34\,kpc and Φ7.5|\Phi| \lesssim 7.5^{\circ} using a Gaia and Gaia-LAMOST sample of stars. As found in previous works, the distributions exhibit significant spiral patterns. The VRV_{R} distributions also show clear quadrupole patterns, which are the consequence of the well-known tilt of the velocity ellipsoid. The observed spiral and quadrupole patterns in the phase space plane vary strongly with radial and azimuthal positions. The phase spirals of VΦV_{\Phi} become more and more relaxed as RR increases. The spiral patterns of VΦV_{\Phi} and VRV_{R} and the quadrupole patterns of VRV_{R} are strongest at 2<Φ<2-2^{\circ} < \Phi < 2^{\circ} but negligible at 4<Φ<64^{\circ} < \Phi < 6^{\circ} and 6<Φ<4-6^{\circ} < \Phi < -4^{\circ}. Our results suggest an external origin of the phase spirals. In this scenario, the intruder, most likely the previously well-known Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, passed through the Galactic plane in the direction towards either Galactic center or anti-center. The azimuthal variations of the phase spirals also help us constrain the passage duration of the intruder. A detailed model is required to reproduce the observed radial and azimuthal variations of the phase spirals of VΦV_{\Phi} and VRV_{R}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1903.09982,
  title  = {The Galactic disc phase spirals at different Galactic positions revealed by Gaia and LAMOST data},
  author = {C. Wang and Y. Huang and H. -B. Yuan and M. -S. Xiang and B. -Q. Chen and H. -F. Wang and Y. -Q. Wu and H. -W. Zhang and Z. -J. Tian and Y. Yang and M. Zhang and X. -W. Liu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1903.09982},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

6pages, 4 figures, Accepted to ApJL