Related papers: Constraining Milky Way mass with Hypervelocity Sta…
We use FIRE-2 zoom simulations of Milky Way size disk galaxies to derive easy-to-use relationships between the observed circular speed of the Galaxy at the Solar location, $v_\mathrm{c}$, and dark matter properties of relevance for direct…
Precise proper motion measurements (sigma_mu ~ 10 mkas/yr) of the recently discovered hyper-velocity star (HVS) SDSS J090745.0+024507 would yield significant constraints on the axis ratios and orientation of a triaxial model for the…
We perform an extensive review of the numerous studies and methods used to determine the total mass of the Milky Way. We group the various methods into seven broad classes, including: i) estimating Galactic escape velocity using high…
We investigate the rotation curve of the Milky Way using a multi-component mass model including a stellar disk, a gaseous disk, a bulge/bar component, and a dark-matter halo. The stellar and gas contributions are calibrated using recent…
The Milky Way halo is the brightest source of dark matter annihilation on the sky. Indeed, the potential strength of the Galactic dark matter signal can supersede that expected from dwarf galaxies and galaxy groups even in regions away from…
Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) travel so fast that they may leave the Galaxy. The tidal disruption of a binary system by the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center is widely assumed to be their ejection mechanism. To test the hypothesis…
We present the discovery of five new unbound hypervelocity stars (HVSs) in the outer Milky Way halo. Using a conservative estimate of Galactic escape velocity, our targeted spectroscopic survey has now identified 16 unbound HVSs as well as…
In this paper, we construct the circular velocity curve of the Milky Way out to $\sim 30$ kpc, providing an updated model of the dark matter density profile. We derive precise parallaxes for 120,309 stars with a data-driven model, using…
We use particle data from the Illustris simulation, combined with individual kinematic constraints on the mass of the Milky Way (MW) at specific distances from the Galactic center, to infer the radial distribution of the MW's dark matter…
The distribution of shapes of galaxies' dark halos provides a basic test for models of galaxy formation. To-date, few dark halo shapes have been measured, and the results of different methods appear contradictory. Here, we add to the sample…
The discovery of hypervelocity stars (HVS) leaving our galaxy with speeds of nearly $10^{3}$ km s$^{-1}$ has provided strong evidence towards the existence of a massive compact object at the galaxy's center. HVS ejected via the disruption…
We use data from the Gaia DR3 dataset to estimate the mass of the Milky Way (MW) by analyzing the rotation curve in the range of distances 5 kpc to 28 kpc. We consider three mass models: the first model adds a spherical dark matter (DM)…
We review the~current status of the~study of rotation curve (RC) of the~Milky Way, and~present a~unified RC from the~Galactic Center to the galacto-centric distance of about 100 kpc. The~RC is used to directly calculate the~distribution of…
We search for evidence of dark matter in the Milky Way by utilizing the stellar number density distribution and kinematics measured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to heliocentric distances exceeding ~10 kpc. We employ the…
The atomic hydrogen gas (HI) disk in the outer region (beyond ~10 kpc from the centre) of Milky Way can provide valuable information about the structure of the dark matter halo. The recent 3-D thickness map of the outer HI disk from the all…
We measure the escape speed curve of the Milky Way based on the analysis of the velocity distribution of $\sim 2850$ counter-rotating halo stars from the Gaia DR2. The distances were estimated through the StarHorse code, and only stars with…
High precision proper motion (PM) measurements are available for approximately 20% of all known dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (MW). Here we extend the Bayesian framework of Patel et al. (2017b) to include all MW satellites with…
We discuss a novel approach to "weighing" the Milky Way dark matter halo, one that combines the latest samples of halo stars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with state-of-the-art numerical simulations of Milky Way analogs.…
Using proper motion measurements from Gaia DR2, we probe the origin of 26 previously known hypervelocity stars (HVSs) around the Milky Way. We find that a significant fraction of these stars have a high probability of originating close to…
Recent interest in primordial black holes as a possible dark matter candidate has motivated the reanalysis of previous methods for constraining massive astrophysical compact objects in the Milky Way halo and beyond. In order to derive these…