Professor Alis Deason alis.j.deason@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Professor Alis Deason alis.j.deason@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Dr Azadeh Fattahi Savadjani azadeh.fattahi-savadjani@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor
Vasily Belokurov
N Wyn Evans
Robert JJ Grand
Federico Marinacci
Rüdiger Pakmor
We model the fastest moving (v tot >300kms −1 vtot>300kms−1 ) local (D ≲ 3 kpc) halo stars using cosmological simulations and six-dimensional Gaia data. Our approach is to use our knowledge of the assembly history and phase-space distribution of halo stars to constrain the form of the high-velocity tail of the stellar halo. Using simple analytical models and cosmological simulations, we find that the shape of the high-velocity tail is strongly dependent on the velocity anisotropy and number density profile of the halo stars – highly eccentric orbits and/or shallow density profiles have more extended high-velocity tails. The halo stars in the solar vicinity are known to have a strongly radial velocity anisotropy, and it has recently been shown the origin of these highly eccentric orbits is the early accretion of a massive (M star ∼10 9 M ⊙ Mstar∼109M⊙ ) dwarf satellite. We use this knowledge to construct a prior on the shape of the high-velocity tail. Moreover, we use the simulations to define an appropriate outer boundary of 2r200, beyond which stars can escape. After applying our methodology to the Gaia data, we find a local (r0 = 8.3 kpc) escape speed of v esc (r 0 )=528 +24 −25 kms −1 vesc(r0)=528−25+24kms−1 . We use our measurement of the escape velocity to estimate the total Milky Way mass, and dark halo concentration: M 200,tot =1.00 +0.31 −0.24 ×10 12 M ⊙ M200,tot=1.00−0.24+0.31×1012M⊙ , c 200 =10.9 +4.4 −3.3 c200=10.9−3.3+4.4 . Our estimated mass agrees with recent results in the literature that seem to be converging on a Milky Way mass of M 200,tot ∼10 12 M ⊙ M200,tot∼1012M⊙ .
Deason, A. J., Fattahi, A., Belokurov, V., Evans, N. W., Grand, R. J., Marinacci, F., & Pakmor, R. (2019). The local high-velocity tail and the Galactic escape speed. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 485(3), 3514-3526. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz623
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Feb 28, 2019 |
Online Publication Date | Mar 2, 2019 |
Publication Date | Apr 30, 2019 |
Deposit Date | Jun 26, 2019 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 27, 2019 |
Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
Print ISSN | 0035-8711 |
Electronic ISSN | 1365-2966 |
Publisher | Royal Astronomical Society |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 485 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 3514-3526 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz623 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1298211 |
Related Public URLs | https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.02016 |
Published Journal Article
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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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