Related papers: Applying Liouville's Theorem to Gaia Data
Using the censored catalog of 103,169 resolved Gaia DR3 binary stars with accurate astrometric data for each component, a new observable, object-specific parameter is computed for each pair: the projected orbital momentum. This parameter is…
In this fourth article on weighing the Galactic disk using the shape of the phase-space spiral, we have tested our method on a billion particle three-dimensional N-body simulation, comprised of a Milky Way like host galaxy and a merging…
The Boltzmann equation relates the equilibrium phase space distribution of stars in the Milky Way to the Galaxy's gravitational potential. However, observations of stellar populations are biased by extinction from foreground dust, which…
Cold or Warm, the Dark Matter substructure spectrum must extend to objects with masses as low as $10^7 M_\odot$, according to the most recent Lyman-$\alpha$ measurements. Around a Milky Way-like galaxy, more than a thousand of these…
Gravitational wave astronomy has placed strong constraints on fundamental physics, and there is every expectation that future observations will continue to do so. In this work we quantify this expectation for future binary merger…
Under the assumption of a simple and time-invariant gravitational potential, many Galactic dynamics techniques infer the Milky Way's mass and dark matter distribution from stellar kinematic observations. These methods typically rely on…
We study the properties of the dark matter component of the radially anisotropic stellar population recently identified in the Gaia data, using magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of Milky Way-like halos from the Auriga project. We identify…
Tidal stripping of dark matter from subhalos falling into the Milky Way produces narrow, cold tidal streams as well as more spatially extended "debris flows" in the form of shells, sheets, and plumes. Here we focus on the debris flow in the…
Forthcoming astrometric missions such as the Gaia satellite will bring to the fore the problem of estimating the enclosed mass from a set of positions, radial velocities and proper motions of tracer stars. Here, we show how to construct the…
In this era of Gaia and ALMA, dynamical stellar mass measurements provide benchmarks that are independent of observations of stellar characteristics and their uncertainties. These benchmarks can then be used to validate and improve stellar…
We present a novel method for determining the total matter surface density of the Galactic disk by analysing the kinematics of a dynamically cold stellar stream that passes through or close to the Galactic plane. The method relies on the…
Precise measurement of the fundamental parameters of stellar systems, including mass and radius, depends critically on how well the stellar distances are known. Astrometry from space provides parallax measurements of unprecented accuracy,…
(abbreviated) We consider how tight binaries consisting of a super-massive black hole of mass $M=10^{3}-10^{4}M_{\odot}$ and a white dwarf can be formed in a globular cluster. We point out that a major fraction of white dwarfs tidally…
We infer the dynamical masses of stars across the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram using wide binaries from the Gaia survey. Gaia's high-precision astrometry measures the wide binaries' orbital motion, which contains the mass information.…
The Hubble Deep Field images have provided us with a unique chance to relate statistical properties of high-redshift galaxies to statistical properties of \lya absorption systems. Combining an {\em empirical} measure of the galaxy surface…
The Gaia space astrometry mission is measuring accurate distances and space motions of more than two billion stars throughout our Galaxy and beyond. This is a first look at how Gaia is contributing to fundamental physics, and in particular…
Using data from Gaia DR2, we study the radial number density profiles of the Galactic globular cluster sample. Proper motions are used for accurate membership selection, especially crucial in the cluster outskirts. Due to the severe…
The causal tail of stochastic gravitational waves can be used to probe the energy density in free streaming relativistic species as well as measure $g_\star(T)$ and beta functions $\beta(T)$ as a function of temperature. In the event of the…
How well can we tell whether a globular cluster will survive the Galaxy's tidal forces? This is conceptually easy to do if we know the cluster's total mass, mass structure and space motion parameters. This information is used in models that…
The chemical makeup of a star provides the fossil information of the environment where it formed. Under this premise, it should be possible to use chemical abundances to tag stars that formed within the same stellar association. This idea -…