Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Spiral arm crossings inferred from ridges in Gaia stellar velocity distributions

Quillen, Alice C. ; Carrillo, Ismael ; Anders, Friedrich ; McMillan, Paul LU orcid ; Hilmi, Tariq ; Monari, Giacomo ; Minchev, Ivan ; Chiappini, Cristina ; Khalatyan, Arman and Steinmetz, Matthias (2018) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 480(3). p.3132-3139
Abstract

The solar neighbourhood contains disc stars that have recently crossed spiral arms in the Galaxy. We propose that boundaries in local velocity distributions separate stars that have recently crossed and been more strongly perturbed by a particular arm from those that haven't. Ridges in the stellar velocity distributions constructed from the second Gaia data release trace orbits that could have touched nearby spiral arms at apocentre or pericentre. The multiple ridges and arcs seen in local velocity distributions are consistent with the presence of multiple spiral features and different pattern speeds and imply that the outer Galaxy is flocculent rather than grand design.

Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume
480
issue
3
pages
8 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85054277184
ISSN
0035-8711
DOI
10.1093/MNRAS/STY2077
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d4aecebf-fef6-45fc-9d26-f71e74f63d4a
date added to LUP
2019-04-29 13:31:55
date last changed
2022-12-15 17:27:19
@article{d4aecebf-fef6-45fc-9d26-f71e74f63d4a,
  abstract     = {{<p>The solar neighbourhood contains disc stars that have recently crossed spiral arms in the Galaxy. We propose that boundaries in local velocity distributions separate stars that have recently crossed and been more strongly perturbed by a particular arm from those that haven't. Ridges in the stellar velocity distributions constructed from the second Gaia data release trace orbits that could have touched nearby spiral arms at apocentre or pericentre. The multiple ridges and arcs seen in local velocity distributions are consistent with the presence of multiple spiral features and different pattern speeds and imply that the outer Galaxy is flocculent rather than grand design.</p>}},
  author       = {{Quillen, Alice C. and Carrillo, Ismael and Anders, Friedrich and McMillan, Paul and Hilmi, Tariq and Monari, Giacomo and Minchev, Ivan and Chiappini, Cristina and Khalatyan, Arman and Steinmetz, Matthias}},
  issn         = {{0035-8711}},
  keywords     = {{Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{3132--3139}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{Spiral arm crossings inferred from ridges in Gaia stellar velocity distributions}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/MNRAS/STY2077}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/MNRAS/STY2077}},
  volume       = {{480}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}