English

Galactic kinematics of various stellar types

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2024-08-13 v1 Astrophysics of Galaxies

Abstract

We compare and contrast the kinematics of various classes of stars, both normal (with M-K spectral types) and peculiar. Numerous plots show the differences in spatial and velocity distributions as well as distributions in kinetic energy vs. angular momentum (KE vs. LZ) space. In the latter plots, young, thin disk stars on nearly circular orbits cling to the left edge of a so-called solar parabola, while older objects on elliptical orbits fill the central parabolic region. Some of the young Wolf-Rayet stars violate this trend due to smaller semi-major axes than the Sun or orbital eccentricities. Deviation of the vertex of the velocity ellipsoid is discussed as an indication of population and youth, with an emphasis on Ap, Bp, Am, Fm, Herbig AeBe, and lambda Boo stars. Both the vertex deviation and phase space distribution provide useful insights.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2408.06161,
  title  = {Galactic kinematics of various stellar types},
  author = {Charles R. Cowley and Robert E. Stencel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.06161},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

11 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:10:27.975Z