Related papers: Mapping Dark Matter in the Milky Way using Normali…
We review most dynamical constraints on the gravitational field of spiral galaxies in general, and of the Milky Way in particular. Such constraints are of prime importance for determining the characteristics of the putative dark matter…
Cold Dark Matter (CDM) theory, a pillar of modern cosmology and astrophysics, predicts the existence of a large number of starless dark matter halos surrounding the Milky Way (MW). However, clear observational evidence of these "dark"…
We use ESA/Gaia astrometry together with SEGUE and LAMOST measurements of the GD-1 stellar stream to explore the improvement on the Galactic gravitational potential that these new data provide. Assuming a realistic universal model for the…
We exploit the first \gaia data release to study the properties of the Galactic stellar halo as traced by RR Lyrae. We demonstrate that it is possible to select a pure sample of RR Lyrae using only photometric information available in the…
Gaia DR3 provides radial velocities for 33 million stars and spectroscopically derived atmospheric parameters for more than five million targets. When combined with the astrometric data, these allow us to derive orbital and stellar…
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…
Stellar streams provide one of the most promising avenues for constraining the global mass distribution of the Milky Way and the nature of dark matter (DM). The stream stars' kinematic "track" enables inference of large-scale properties 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…
New and more reliable distances and proper motions of a large number of stars in the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) catalogue allow to calculate the local matter density distribution more precisely than earlier. We devised a method…
We apply the vertical Jeans equation to the Milky Way disk, in order to study non-axisymmetric variations in the thin disk surface density. We divide the disk plane into area cells with a 100 pc grid spacing, and use four separate subsets…
We study predictions for dark matter phase-space structure near the Sun based on high-resolution simulations of six galaxy halos taken from the Aquarius Project. The local DM density distribution is predicted to be remarkably smooth; the…
Almost all spiral galaxies have been observed to have flattening rotation curves. The new Gaia DR3 released data shows a Milky Way sharply Keplerian declining rotation curve, starting at $\sim 16$ kpc and ending at 26.5 kpc. The data…
In this paper, we construct a detailed circular velocity curve of the Milky Way out to 20 kpc based on the radial component of the Jeans equation in cylindrical coordinates, assuming an axisymmetric gravitational potential, and show its…
Several works have recently applied Jeans modelling to Gaia-based datasets to infer the circular velocity curve for the Milky Way. Such works have consistently found evidence for a continuous decline in the rotation curve beyond $\sim$15kpc…
A new class of models of stellar discs is introduced and used to build a self-consistent model of our Galaxy. The model is defined by the parameters that specify the action-based distribution functions (DFs) f(J) of four stellar discs…
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…
We estimate the mass of the Milky Way (MW) within 21.1 kpc using the kinematics of halo globular clusters (GCs) determined by Gaia. The second Gaia data release (DR2) contained a catalogue of absolute proper motions (PMs) for a set of…
After deducing the density profiles and gravitational potential functions of eight galaxies from the rotation velocity data from THINGS, we find that the density decreases exponentially with the potential in substantial regions of the…
Hypervelocity stars are unique objects moving through the Milky Way at speeds exceeding the local escape velocity, providing valuable insights into the Galactic gravitational potential and the properties of its central supermassive black…
Our position inside the Galactic disc had prevented us from establishing an accurate rotation curve, until the advent of Gaia, whose third data release (Gaia DR3) made it possible to specify it up to twice the optical radius. We aim to…