Rotation Curve and Mass Distribution in the Galactic Center —From Black Hole to Entire Galaxy—

Abstract

Abstract Analyzing high-resolution longitude–velocity (LV) diagrams of the Galactic Center observed with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope in the CO and CS line emissions, we obtained a central rotation curve of the Milky Way. We combined it with data for the outer disk, and constructed a logarithmic rotation curve of the entire Galaxy. The new rotation curve covers a wide range of radius from r ∽ 1 pc to several hundred kpc without a gap of data points. It links, for the first time, the kinematical characteristics of the Galaxy from the central black hole to the bulge, disk and dark halo. Using this grand rotation curve, we calculated the radial distribution of the surface mass density in the entire Galaxy, where the radius and derived mass densities vary over a dynamical range with several orders of magnitudes. We show that the galactic bulge is deconvolved into two components: the inner (core) and main bulges. Both of the two bulge components are represented by exponential density profiles, but the de Vaucouleurs law was found to fail to represent the mass profile of the galactic bulge.