Related papers: Self-consistent Modelling of the Milky Way using G…
Interpreting and modelling astronomical catalogues requires an understanding of the catalogues' completeness or selection function: objects of what properties had a chance to end up in the catalogue. Here we set out to empirically quantify…
We consider what is the best way to extract science from large surveys of the Milky Way galaxy. The diversity of data gathered in these surveys, together with our position within the Galaxy, imply that science must be extracted by fitting…
We present a non-parametric model for inferring the three-dimensional (3D) distribution of dust density in the Milky Way. Our approach uses the extinction measured towards stars at different locations in the Galaxy at approximately known…
Thanks to Gaia and large-scale spectroscopic follow-up surveys (4MOST, DESI, WEAVE, SDSS-V), it is now possible to build representative and minimally biased samples of the local white dwarf population. Here we analyse several volume-limited…
Gaia DR2 has revealed new small-scale and large-scale patterns in the phase-space distribution of stars in the Milky Way. In cylindrical Galactic coordinates $(R,\phi,z)$, ridge-like structures can be seen in the \vphiR{} plane and…
Using realistic cosmological simulations of Milky Way sized haloes, we study their dynamical state and the accuracy of inferring their mass profiles with steady-state models of dynamical tracers. We use a new method that describes the…
Many statistical methods have been proposed in the last years for analyzing the spatial distribution of galaxies. Very few of them, however, can handle properly the border effects of complex observational sample volumes. In this paper, we…
Using a sample of red giant stars from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) Data Release 16, we infer the conditional distribution $p([\alpha/\text{Fe}]\,|\,[\text{Fe/H}])$ in the Milky Way disk for the…
I discuss the importance of dynamical models for exploiting survey data, focusing on the advantages of "torus" models. I summarize a number of applications of these models to the study of the Milky Way, including the determination of the…
We examine the Velocity Distribution Function (VDF) in dark matter halos from Milky Way to cluster mass scales. We identify an empirical model for the VDF with a wider peak and a steeper tail than a Maxwell--Boltzmann distribution, and…
The second data release from the Gaia mission (DR2) provides a comprehensive and unprecedented picture of the motions of astronomical sources in the plane of the sky, extending from the solar neighborhood to the outer reaches of the Milky…
We present a simple method for fitting parametrized mass models of the Milky Way to observational constraints. We take a Bayesian approach which allows us to take into account input from photometric and kinematic data, and expectations from…
The Gaia map of the Milky Way reveals a pair of triangular features at nearly symmetric locations on opposite sides of the Galactic Center. In this paper we explore the implications of these features assuming they are manifestations of a…
Tidal debris streams from galaxy satellites can provide insight into the dark matter distribution in halos. This is because we have more information about stars in a debris structure than about a purely random population of stars: we know…
We revisit the properties and astrophysical implications of the field white dwarf mass distribution in preparation of Gaia applications. Our study is based on the two samples with the best established completeness and most precise…
Galaxy models comprising several components (including dark matter) that are bound by the self-consistently generated gravitational field are readily constructed from distribution functions (DFs) that are analytic functions of the action…
We combine the six high-resolution Aquarius dark matter simulations with a semi-analytic galaxy formation model to investigate the properties of the satellites of Milky Way-like galaxies. We find good correspondence with the observed…
We present a new model of the three-dimensional distribution of molecular gas in the Milky Way Galaxy, based on CO line data. Our analysis is based on a gas-flow simulation of the inner Galaxy using smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH)…
We investigate, using the Gaia-ESO Survey internal Data-Release 2, the properties of the double sequence of the Milky Way discs (defined chemically as the high-alpha and low-alpha populations), and discuss their compatibility with discs…
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…