New kinematic map of the Milky Way bulge

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Quezada, Carlos, Zoccali, Manuela, Valenti, Elena, Rojas-Arriagada, Alvaro, Renzini, Alvio, Gonzalez, Oscar, Mucciarelli, Alessio, Rejkuba, Maria, Surot, Francisco, Navarro, Alvaro Valenzuela
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Quezada, Carlos
Zoccali, Manuela
Valenti, Elena
Rojas-Arriagada, Alvaro
Renzini, Alvio
Gonzalez, Oscar
Mucciarelli, Alessio
Rejkuba, Maria
Surot, Francisco
Navarro, Alvaro Valenzuela
author_facet Quezada, Carlos
Zoccali, Manuela
Valenti, Elena
Rojas-Arriagada, Alvaro
Renzini, Alvio
Gonzalez, Oscar
Mucciarelli, Alessio
Rejkuba, Maria
Surot, Francisco
Navarro, Alvaro Valenzuela
contents The kinematics of the Milky Way bulge is known to be complex, reflecting the presence of multiple stellar components with distinct chemical and spatial properties. In particular, the bulge hosts a bar structure exhibiting cylindrical rotation, and a central velocity dispersion peak extending vertically along the Galactic latitude. However, due to severe extinction and crowding, observational constraints near the Galactic plane are sparse, underscoring the need for additional data to improve the completeness and accuracy of existing kinematic maps, and enabling robust comparison with dynamical models. This work aimed to refine the existing analytical models of the Galactic bulge kinematics by improving constraints in the innermost regions. We present updated maps of the mean velocity and velocity dispersion by incorporating new data near the Galactic plane. We combined radial velocity measurements from the GIBS and APOGEE surveys with both previously published and newly acquired MUSE observations. A custom\ -- developed Python\ -- based tool, {\tt PHOTfun}, was used to extract spectra from MUSE datacubes using PSF photometry based on DAOPHOT-II, with an integrated GUI for usability. The method included a dedicated extension, {\tt PHOTcube}, optimized for IFU datacubes. We applied Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques to identify and correct for foreground contamination and to derive new analytical fits for the velocity and velocity dispersion distributions. Our analysis included nine new MUSE fields located close to the Galactic plane, bringing the total number of mapped fields to 57 including ~23000 individual RV measured. The updated kinematic maps confirm the cylindrical rotation of the bulge and reveal a more boxy morphology in the velocity dispersion distribution, while preserving a well\ -- defined central peak.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_06846
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle New kinematic map of the Milky Way bulge
Quezada, Carlos
Zoccali, Manuela
Valenti, Elena
Rojas-Arriagada, Alvaro
Renzini, Alvio
Gonzalez, Oscar
Mucciarelli, Alessio
Rejkuba, Maria
Surot, Francisco
Navarro, Alvaro Valenzuela
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The kinematics of the Milky Way bulge is known to be complex, reflecting the presence of multiple stellar components with distinct chemical and spatial properties. In particular, the bulge hosts a bar structure exhibiting cylindrical rotation, and a central velocity dispersion peak extending vertically along the Galactic latitude. However, due to severe extinction and crowding, observational constraints near the Galactic plane are sparse, underscoring the need for additional data to improve the completeness and accuracy of existing kinematic maps, and enabling robust comparison with dynamical models. This work aimed to refine the existing analytical models of the Galactic bulge kinematics by improving constraints in the innermost regions. We present updated maps of the mean velocity and velocity dispersion by incorporating new data near the Galactic plane. We combined radial velocity measurements from the GIBS and APOGEE surveys with both previously published and newly acquired MUSE observations. A custom\ -- developed Python\ -- based tool, {\tt PHOTfun}, was used to extract spectra from MUSE datacubes using PSF photometry based on DAOPHOT-II, with an integrated GUI for usability. The method included a dedicated extension, {\tt PHOTcube}, optimized for IFU datacubes. We applied Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques to identify and correct for foreground contamination and to derive new analytical fits for the velocity and velocity dispersion distributions. Our analysis included nine new MUSE fields located close to the Galactic plane, bringing the total number of mapped fields to 57 including ~23000 individual RV measured. The updated kinematic maps confirm the cylindrical rotation of the bulge and reveal a more boxy morphology in the velocity dispersion distribution, while preserving a well\ -- defined central peak.
title New kinematic map of the Milky Way bulge
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.06846