Related papers: Constraining the Galactic potential via action-bas…
The present-day response of a Galactic disc stellar population to a non-axisymmetric perturbation of the potential has previously been computed through perturbation theory within the phase-space coordinates of the unperturbed axisymmetric…
We develop a flexible set of action-based distribution functions (DFs) for stellar haloes. The DFs have five free parameters, controlling the inner and outer density slope, break radius, flattening and anisotropy respectively. The DFs…
One of the major goals of the field of Milky Way dynamics is to recover the gravitational potential field. Mapping the potential would allow us to determine the spatial distribution of matter - both baryonic and dark - throughout the…
The only way to map the Galaxy's gravitational potential $\Phi({\bf x})$ and the distribution of matter that produces it is by modelling the dynamics of stars and gas. Observations of the kinematics of gas provide key information about…
We present RoadMapping, a full-likelihood dynamical modelling machinery that aims to recover the Milky Way's (MW) gravitational potential from large samples of stars in the Galactic disk. RoadMapping models the observed positions and…
We present a new approach to constrain galaxy physical parameters from the combined interpretation of stellar and nebular emission in wide ranges of observations. This approach relies on the Bayesian analysis of any type of galaxy spectral…
We present a new approach for quantifying the abundance of galaxy clusters and constraining cosmological parameters using dynamical measurements. In the standard method, galaxy line-of-sight (LOS) velocities, $v$, or velocity dispersions…
We present a method to constrain the potential of the non-axisymmetric components of the Galaxy using the kinematics of stars in the solar neighborhood. The basic premise is that dynamical substructures in phase-space (i.e. due to the bar…
We present a maximum-likelihood analysis of galaxy-galaxy lensing effects in galaxy clusters and in the field. The aim is to determine the accuracy and robustness of constraints that can be obtained on galaxy halo properties in both…
In the coming decade the Gaia satellite will precisely measure the positions and velocities of millions of stars in the Galactic halo, including stars in many tidal streams. These streams, the products of hierarchical accretion of satellite…
We develop a novel method to simultaneously determine the vertical potential, force and stellar $z-v_z$ phase space distribution function (DF) in our local patch of the Galaxy. We assume that the Solar Neighborhood can be treated as a…
Most measurements of mass in Astronomy that use kinematics of stars or gas rely on assumptions of equilibrium that are often hard to verify. Instead, we develop a novel idea that uses the clustering in action space, as a probe of underlying…
The advent of datasets of stars in the Milky Way with six-dimensional phase-space information makes it possible to construct empirically the distribution function (DF). Here, we show that the accelerations can be uniquely determined from…
We present a new technique to constrain the gravitational potential of a galaxy from the observed stellar mass surface density alone under a number of assumptions. It uses the classical Eddington Inversion Method to compute the phase-space…
Stream stars removed by tides from their progenitor satellite galaxy or globular cluster act as a group of test particles on neighboring orbits, probing the gravitational field of the Milky Way. While constraints from individual streams…
Selection effects, such as interstellar extinction and varying survey depth, complicate efforts to determine the gravitational potential - and thus the distribution of baryonic and dark matter - throughout the Milky Way galaxy using stellar…
In this work, we present an action-based dynamical equilibrium model to constrain the phase-space distribution of stars in the stellar halo, present-day dark matter distribution, and the total mass distribution in M31-like galaxies. The…
We present a new theoretical population synthesis model (the Galaxy Model) to examine and deal with large amounts of data from surveys of the Milky Way and to decipher the present and past structure and history of our own Galaxy. We assume…
Analytic distribution functions (DFs) for the Galactic disc are discussed. The DFs depend on action variables and their predictions for observable quantities are explored under the assumption that the motion perpendicular to the Galactic…
We infer the gravitational potential of the Galactic disk by analysing the phase-space densities of 120 stellar samples in 40 spatially separate sub-regions of the solar neighbourhood, using Gaia's second data release (DR2), in order to…