Related papers: Probing the Galaxy's bars via the Hercules stream
We provide the first quantitative evidence for the deceleration of the Galactic bar from local stellar kinematics in agreement with dynamical friction by a typical dark matter halo. The kinematic response of the stellar disk to a…
Both the three-dimensional density of red clump giants and the gas kinematics in the inner Galaxy indicate that the pattern speed of the Galactic bar could be much lower than previously estimated. Here, we show that such slow bar models are…
Previous work has related the Galactic bar to structure in the local stellar velocity distribution. Here we show that the bar also influences the spatial gradients of the velocity vector via the Oort constants. By numerical integration of…
One of the main properties of galactic bars is their rotation (or pattern) speed, which is driven by both internal galactic properties, as well as external interactions. To assess the influence of these internal and external drivers on bar…
Previous work has related the Galactic Bar to structure in the local stellar velocity distribution. Here we show that the Bar also influences the spatial gradients of the velocity vector via the Oort constants. By numerical integration of…
We investigate the possibility that the recently discovered Hercules Milky Way satellite is in fact a stellar stream in formation, thereby explaining its very elongated shape with an axis ratio of 3 to 1. Under the assumption that Hercules…
We construct a large set of dynamical models of the galactic bulge, bar and inner disk using the Made-to-Measure method. Our models are constrained to match the red clump giant density from a combination of the VVV, UKIDSS and 2MASS…
We define a physically-motivated measure for galactic bar length, called the dynamical length. The dynamical length of the bar corresponds to the radial extent of the orbits that are the backbone supporting the bar feature. We propose a…
The circular speed curve of the Milky Way provides a key constraint on its mass distribution, reflecting the axisymmetric component of the gravitational potential. This is especially critical in the inner Galaxy ($R \lesssim 4$ kpc), where…
We have done a detailed study on the structural and kinematical properties of lenticular and early- and late-type spiral galaxies with bars, aiming to explore the formation and evolution processes of stellar bars in galaxies, and their…
I present results from the modeling of stellar bars in nearly 300 barred galaxies in the local universe through parametric multi-component multi-band image fitting. The surface brightness radial profile of bars is described using a Sersic…
Identifying the structure of our Galaxy has always been fraught with difficulties, and while modern surveys continue to make progress building a map of the Milky Way, there is still much to understand. The arm and bar features are important…
We investigate the possibility that Hercules, a recently discovered Milky Way (MW) satellite, is a stellar stream in the process of formation. This hypothesis is motivated by Hercules' highly elongated shape as well as the measurement of a…
Using available kinematical data for a subsample of NLTT stars from the HIPPARCOS mission we confirm the existence of a previously reported local anomaly in the (u,v) plane: the mean motion u for old disc stars, with v < -30 km/s, is…
We review general observational properties of bars in galaxies, and relations between bars, their dynamics, and (circum)nuclear activity. We consider new measurements of bar fractions and of the distribution of bars with host type, bar…
Co-moving groups of stars (streams) are well known in the velocity space of the disc near the Sun. Many are thought to arise from resonances with the Galactic bar or spiral arms. In this work, we search for similar moving groups in the…
We investigate the evolution of two bars formed in fully self-consistent hydrodynamic simulations of the formation of Milky Way-mass galaxies. One galaxy shows higher central mass concentration and has a longer and stronger bar than the…
A high-resolution N-body simulation suggests that stellar streams in the discs of barred galaxies are common and strongly time-dependent. The velocity distribution of stars in the Solar neighbourhood betray many such streams, including a…
Bars in spiral galaxies can weaken through gas inflow towards the center, and angular momentum transfer. Several bar episodes can follow one another in the life of the galaxy, if sufficient gas is accreted from the intergalactic medium to…
Most late-type stars in the solar neighborhood have velocities similar to the local standard of rest (LSR), but there is a clearly separated secondary component corresponding to a slower rotation and a mean outward motion. Detailed…