Abstract
This review paper discusses the science of astrometric catalogs, their current applications and future prospects for making progress in fundamental astronomy, astrophysics and gravitational physics. We discuss the concept of fundamental catalogs, their practical realizations, and future perspectives. Particular attention is paid to the astrophysical implementations of the catalogs such as the measurement of the Oort constants, the secular aberration and parallax, and asteroseismology. We also consider the use of the fundamental catalogs in gravitational physics for testing general theory of relativity and detection of ultra-long gravitational waves of cosmological origin. PACS numbers: 04.20.Cv, 04.30.−w, 95.10.−a, 95.10.Jk, 95.30.−k.
Highlights
Fundamental astronomy is currently an integral part of modern gravitational physics and astrophysics, which rely upon two pillars—astrometry and celestial mechanics
While the Solar System moves with respect to the Local Standard of Rest (LSR) with the peculiar velocity u0, v0, w0, the LSR itself moves around the center of the Milky Way along a circular path, which is characterized by the local parameters of Galactic rotation: R0 – the radial distance to the center of the Milky Way, Θ0 andR0 – the linear velocity of the circular orbital motion and its radial gradient, and ω0 Θ0/R0
A recent paper by Bovy (Bovy, 2020) demonstrates that measurement of the secular aberration effect in combination with relative accelerations obtained from binary pulsar orbital decays (Chakrabarti et al, 2020) allows one to determine all of the parameters describing the dynamics of our local Galactic environment, including the circular velocity at the Sun, and its derivative, the local angular frequency, the Oort constants, and the Sun’s motion with respect to the LSR
Summary
Fundamental astronomy is currently an integral part of modern gravitational physics and astrophysics, which rely upon two pillars—astrometry and celestial mechanics. The defining task of fundamental astronomy is to build the inertial celestial reference frame, which is used to determine coordinates, velocities, and accelerations of astronomical bodies and to predict their past, present, and future dynamical evolution in the course of time. A cardinal improvement in the precision of astrometric measurements of positions and parallaxes of stars and quasars has been achieved (in some cases approaching the level of x10 μas) by making use of the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) (Fomalont and Kopeikin, 2002; Fomalont and Reid, 2004; Sanna et al, 2017) and the Gaia space satellite (Castelvecchi, 2016). Technological achievements in high-precision astronomical measurements of coordinates and velocities of celestial bodies along with manufacturing of ultra-accurate quantum clocks open new fascinating research opportunities in the field of fundamental astronomy and its astrophysical applications which are briefly reviewed in the present article
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