Self-consistent modelling of the Milky Way's Nuclear Stellar Disc

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sormani, Mattia C., Sanders, Jason L., Fritz, Tobias K., Smith, Leigh C., Gerhard, Ortwin, Schoedel, Rainer, Magorrian, John, Neumayer, Nadine, Nogueras-Lara, Francisco, Feldmeier-Krause, Anja, Mastrobuono-Battisti, Alessandra, Schultheis, Mathias, Shahzamanian, Banafsheh, Vasiliev, Eugene, Klessen, Ralf S., Lucas, Philip, Minniti, Dante
Format: Preprint
Published: 2021
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author Sormani, Mattia C.
Sanders, Jason L.
Fritz, Tobias K.
Smith, Leigh C.
Gerhard, Ortwin
Schoedel, Rainer
Magorrian, John
Neumayer, Nadine
Nogueras-Lara, Francisco
Feldmeier-Krause, Anja
Mastrobuono-Battisti, Alessandra
Schultheis, Mathias
Shahzamanian, Banafsheh
Vasiliev, Eugene
Klessen, Ralf S.
Lucas, Philip
Minniti, Dante
author_facet Sormani, Mattia C.
Sanders, Jason L.
Fritz, Tobias K.
Smith, Leigh C.
Gerhard, Ortwin
Schoedel, Rainer
Magorrian, John
Neumayer, Nadine
Nogueras-Lara, Francisco
Feldmeier-Krause, Anja
Mastrobuono-Battisti, Alessandra
Schultheis, Mathias
Shahzamanian, Banafsheh
Vasiliev, Eugene
Klessen, Ralf S.
Lucas, Philip
Minniti, Dante
contents The Nuclear Stellar Disc (NSD) is a flattened high-density stellar structure that dominates the gravitational field of the Milky Way at Galactocentric radius $30\lesssim R\lesssim 300$ pc. We construct axisymmetric self-consistent equilibrium dynamical models of the NSD in which the distribution function is an analytic function of the action variables. We fit the models to the normalised kinematic distributions (line-of-sight velocities + VIRAC2 proper motions) of stars in the NSD survey of Fritz et al., taking the foreground contamination due to the Galactic Bar explicitly into account using an $N$-body model. The posterior marginalised probability distributions give a total mass of $M_{\rm NSD} = 10.5^{+1.1}_{-1.0} \times10^8 \,{\rm M_\odot}$, roughly exponential radial and vertical scale-lengths of $R_{\rm disc} = 88.6^{+9.2}_{-6.9}$ pc and $H_{\rm disc}=28.4^{+5.5}_{-5.5}$ pc respectively, and a velocity dispersion $σ\simeq 70$ km/s that decreases with radius. We find that the assumption that the NSD is axisymmetric provides a good representation of the data. We quantify contamination from the Galactic Bar in the sample, which is substantial in most observed fields. Our models provide the full 6D (position+velocity) distribution function of the NSD, which can be used to generate predictions for future surveys. We make the models publicly available as part of the software package AGAMA.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2111_12713
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Self-consistent modelling of the Milky Way's Nuclear Stellar Disc
Sormani, Mattia C.
Sanders, Jason L.
Fritz, Tobias K.
Smith, Leigh C.
Gerhard, Ortwin
Schoedel, Rainer
Magorrian, John
Neumayer, Nadine
Nogueras-Lara, Francisco
Feldmeier-Krause, Anja
Mastrobuono-Battisti, Alessandra
Schultheis, Mathias
Shahzamanian, Banafsheh
Vasiliev, Eugene
Klessen, Ralf S.
Lucas, Philip
Minniti, Dante
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The Nuclear Stellar Disc (NSD) is a flattened high-density stellar structure that dominates the gravitational field of the Milky Way at Galactocentric radius $30\lesssim R\lesssim 300$ pc. We construct axisymmetric self-consistent equilibrium dynamical models of the NSD in which the distribution function is an analytic function of the action variables. We fit the models to the normalised kinematic distributions (line-of-sight velocities + VIRAC2 proper motions) of stars in the NSD survey of Fritz et al., taking the foreground contamination due to the Galactic Bar explicitly into account using an $N$-body model. The posterior marginalised probability distributions give a total mass of $M_{\rm NSD} = 10.5^{+1.1}_{-1.0} \times10^8 \,{\rm M_\odot}$, roughly exponential radial and vertical scale-lengths of $R_{\rm disc} = 88.6^{+9.2}_{-6.9}$ pc and $H_{\rm disc}=28.4^{+5.5}_{-5.5}$ pc respectively, and a velocity dispersion $σ\simeq 70$ km/s that decreases with radius. We find that the assumption that the NSD is axisymmetric provides a good representation of the data. We quantify contamination from the Galactic Bar in the sample, which is substantial in most observed fields. Our models provide the full 6D (position+velocity) distribution function of the NSD, which can be used to generate predictions for future surveys. We make the models publicly available as part of the software package AGAMA.
title Self-consistent modelling of the Milky Way's Nuclear Stellar Disc
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.12713