English

A New Model for the Milky Way Bar

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2015-06-11 v1

Abstract

We use Schwarzschild's orbit-superposition technique to construct self-consistent models of the Galactic bar. Using χ2\chi^2 minimisation, we find that the best-fit Galactic bar model has a pattern speed Ωp=60kms1kpc1\Omega_{\rm p}=60 \rm{km s^{-1} kpc^{-1}}, disk mass Md=1.0×1011M\rm{M_{\rm d}=1.0\times10^{11}M_{\odot}} and bar angle θbar=20\theta_{\rm bar}=20^{\circ} for an adopted bar mass Mbar=2×1010M\rm{M_{\rm bar}=2\times10^{10}M_{\odot}}. The model can reproduce not only the three-dimensional and projected density distributions but also velocity and velocity dispersion data from the BRAVA survey. We also predict the proper motions in the range l=[12,12]l=[-12^{\circ},12^{\circ}], b=[10,10]b=[-10^{\circ},10^{\circ}], which appear to be higher than observations in the longitudinal direction. The model is stable within a timescale of 0.5 Gyr, but appears to deviate from steady-state on longer timescales. Our model can be further tested by future observations such as those from GAIA.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1209.0963,
  title  = {A New Model for the Milky Way Bar},
  author = {Yougang Wang and Hongsheng Zhao and Shude Mao and R. M. Rich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1209.0963},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

16 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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