The Great Wave: Evidence of a large-scale vertical corrugation propagating outwards in the Galactic disc

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Hauptverfasser: Poggio, E., Khanna, S., Drimmel, R., Zari, E., D'Onghia, E., Lattanzi, M. G., Palicio, P. A., Recio-Blanco, A., Thulasidharan, L.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Poggio, E.
Khanna, S.
Drimmel, R.
Zari, E.
D'Onghia, E.
Lattanzi, M. G.
Palicio, P. A.
Recio-Blanco, A.
Thulasidharan, L.
author_facet Poggio, E.
Khanna, S.
Drimmel, R.
Zari, E.
D'Onghia, E.
Lattanzi, M. G.
Palicio, P. A.
Recio-Blanco, A.
Thulasidharan, L.
contents We analyse the three-dimensional structure and kinematics of two samples of young stars in the Galactic disc, containing respectively young giants ($\sim$17$\, $000 stars out to heliocentric distances of $\sim$7 kpc) and classical Cepheids ($\sim$3400 stars out to heliocentric distances of $\sim$15 kpc). The vertical structure of the two samples exhibit a consistent shape of the Milky Way's warp, whose amplitude reaches $\sim$700 pc at a Galactocentric radius R $\sim$ 14 kpc. Moreover, both samples show evidence of a large-scale vertical corrugation on top of the warp with a vertical height of $\sim$150-200 pc, extending over a large portion of the Galactic disc between Galactocentric radii $R \sim$ 10-12 kpc in the third Galactic quadrant (galactic longitudes $180^\circ < l < 270^\circ$) and $\sim$12-14 kpc in the second Galactic quadrant ($90^\circ < l < 180^\circ$). Its total length is at least 10 kpc and can possibly reach $\sim$ 20 kpc with the Cepheid sample. The stars in the corrugation exhibit both radial and vertical systematic motions, with Galactocentric radial velocities towards the outer disc of about 10-15 km/s. In the vertical motions, once the warp signature is subtracted, the residuals show a large-scale feature of systematically positive vertical velocities, which is shifted to slightly larger Galactocentric radii with respect to the spatial vertical corrugation (with a phase difference of roughly $π/2$), indicating an oscillatory behaviour. A comparison of the observed shift with a simple toy model suggests that the corrugation can be interpreted as a wave propagating towards the outer disc. The wave mapped in this work is located at larger heliocentric distances compared to the Radcliffe wave, a $\sim$2.7 kpc filament of dense gas clouds close to the Sun, and exhibits a larger coverage of the Galactic disc.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_18659
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Great Wave: Evidence of a large-scale vertical corrugation propagating outwards in the Galactic disc
Poggio, E.
Khanna, S.
Drimmel, R.
Zari, E.
D'Onghia, E.
Lattanzi, M. G.
Palicio, P. A.
Recio-Blanco, A.
Thulasidharan, L.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
We analyse the three-dimensional structure and kinematics of two samples of young stars in the Galactic disc, containing respectively young giants ($\sim$17$\, $000 stars out to heliocentric distances of $\sim$7 kpc) and classical Cepheids ($\sim$3400 stars out to heliocentric distances of $\sim$15 kpc). The vertical structure of the two samples exhibit a consistent shape of the Milky Way's warp, whose amplitude reaches $\sim$700 pc at a Galactocentric radius R $\sim$ 14 kpc. Moreover, both samples show evidence of a large-scale vertical corrugation on top of the warp with a vertical height of $\sim$150-200 pc, extending over a large portion of the Galactic disc between Galactocentric radii $R \sim$ 10-12 kpc in the third Galactic quadrant (galactic longitudes $180^\circ < l < 270^\circ$) and $\sim$12-14 kpc in the second Galactic quadrant ($90^\circ < l < 180^\circ$). Its total length is at least 10 kpc and can possibly reach $\sim$ 20 kpc with the Cepheid sample. The stars in the corrugation exhibit both radial and vertical systematic motions, with Galactocentric radial velocities towards the outer disc of about 10-15 km/s. In the vertical motions, once the warp signature is subtracted, the residuals show a large-scale feature of systematically positive vertical velocities, which is shifted to slightly larger Galactocentric radii with respect to the spatial vertical corrugation (with a phase difference of roughly $π/2$), indicating an oscillatory behaviour. A comparison of the observed shift with a simple toy model suggests that the corrugation can be interpreted as a wave propagating towards the outer disc. The wave mapped in this work is located at larger heliocentric distances compared to the Radcliffe wave, a $\sim$2.7 kpc filament of dense gas clouds close to the Sun, and exhibits a larger coverage of the Galactic disc.
title The Great Wave: Evidence of a large-scale vertical corrugation propagating outwards in the Galactic disc
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.18659