Galactic Pole Research Articles

Tomographic Imaging of the Sagittarius Spiral Arm's Magnetic Field Structure

The Galactic global magnetic field is thought to play a vital role in shaping Galactic structures such as spiral arms and giant molecular clouds. However, our knowledge of magnetic field structures in the Galactic plane at different distances is limited, as measurements used to map the magnetic field are the integrated effect along the line of sight. In this study, we present the first ever tomographic imaging of magnetic field structures in a Galactic spiral arm. Using optical stellar polarimetry over a 17′×10′ field of view, we probe the Sagittarius spiral arm. Combining these data with stellar distances from the Gaia mission, we can isolate the contributions of five individual clouds along the line of sight by analyzing the polarimetry data as a function of distance. The observed clouds include a foreground cloud (d < 200 pc) and four clouds in the Sagittarius arm at 1.23, 1.47, 1.63, and 2.23 kpc. The column densities of these clouds range from 0.5 to 2.8 × 1021 cm−2. The magnetic fields associated with each cloud show smooth spatial distributions within their observed regions on scales smaller than 10 pc and display distinct orientations. The position angles projected on the plane of the sky, measured from the Galactic north to the east, for the clouds in increasing order of distance are 135°, 46°, 58°, 150°, and 40°, with uncertainties of a few degrees. Notably, these position angles deviate significantly from the direction parallel to the Galactic plane.

Mapping the Universe with gamma-ray bursts

Abstract We explore large-scale cosmic structure using the spatial distribution of 542 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) having accurately-measured positions and spectroscopic redshifts. Prominent cosmological clusters are identified in both the northern and southern galactic hemispheres (avoiding extinction effects in the plane of the Milky Way) using the Bootstrap Point-Radius method. The Northern Galactic hemisphere contains a significant group of four GRBs in the redshift range 0.59 ≤ z ≤ 0.62 (with a Bootstrap probability of p = 0.012) along with the previously-identified Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall (in the revised redshift range 0.9 ≤ z ≤ 2.1; p = 0.017). The Southern Galactic hemisphere contains the previously-identified Giant GRB Ring (p = 0.022) along with another possible cluster of 7 − 9 GRBs at 1.17 ≤ z ≤ 1.444 (p = 0.031). Additionally, both the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall and the Giant GRB Ring have become more prominent as the GRB sample size has grown. The approach used here underscores the potential value of GRB clustering as a probe of large-scale cosmic structure, complementary to galaxy and quasar clustering. Because of the vast scale on which GRB clustering provides valuable insights, it is important that optical GRB monitoring continue so that additional spectroscopic redshift measurements should be obtained.

The surface mass density of the Milky Way: does the traditional KZ approach work in the context of new surveys?

ABSTRACT We revisit the classical KZ problem – determination of the vertical force and implied total mass density distribution of the Milky Way disc – for a wide range of Galactocentric radius and vertical height using chemically selected thin and thick disc samples based on Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment spectroscopy combined with the Gaia astrometry. We derived the velocity dispersion profiles in Galactic cylindrical coordinates, and solved the Jeans equation for the two samples separately. The result is surprising that the total surface mass density as a function of vertical height as derived for these two chemically distinguished populations is different. The discrepancies are larger in the inner compared to the outer Galaxy, with the density calculated from thick disc being larger, independent of the Galactic radius. Furthermore, while there is an overall good agreement between the total mass density derived for the thick disc population and the standard halo model for vertical heights larger than 1 kpc, close to the mid-plane the mass density observed using the thick disc population is larger than that predicted from the standard halo model. We explore various implications of these discrepancies, and speculate their sources, including problems associated with the assumed density laws, velocity dispersion profiles, and the Galactic rotation curve, potential non-equilibrium of the Galactic disc, or a failure of the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) dark matter halo profile for the Milky Way. We conclude that the growing detail in hand on the chemodynamical distributions of Milky Way stars challenges traditional analytical treatments of the KZ problem.

ASTROPHYSICAL STUDIES OF 9 UNSTUDIED OPEN STAR CLUSTERS USING GAIA DR3

Using the Gaia DR3 data sets, this work gives an analysis of nine open clusters: Dolidze 25, Kronberger 13, Kronberger 18, Majaess 99, NGC 7795, Ruprecht 139, Teutsch 55, S1, and FSR 0596, which are close to the Galactic plane of the Milky Way. The number of probable cluster members is found to be 81, 77, 120, 155, 108, 110, 160, and 116 respectively. Radii are determined as 5.40, 5.25, 4.80, 4.20, 4.28, 3.70, 4.30, 4.30, and 3.53 arcmin, respectively. With solar metallicity isochrones log ages of 7.70, 9.00, 8.35, 7.50, 9.00, 8.00, 7.50, 8.50, and 9.5 yr are determined for these clusters. The best fitting of the isochrone produced distances of 2.6, 1.27, 1.16, 1.16, 3.10, 1.64, 2.50, 2.44, and 0.98 kpc that are similar to the distances calculated from inverting median parallaxes. The mass function slopes are in agreement with the Salpeter value. The results of the total masses are found to be 116.07, 79.33, 141.24, 147.34, 145.76, 491.01, 155, 212.46, and 82.79 M☉.

Constraints on the local cosmic void from the Pantheon supernovae data

In principle, the local cosmic void can be simply modeled by the spherically symmetric Lemaitre–Tolman–Bondi (LTB) metric. In practice, the real local cosmic void is probably not spherically symmetric. In this paper, to reconstruct a more realistic profile of the local cosmic void, we divide it into several segments. Each segment with certain solid angle is modeled by its own LTB metric. Meanwhile, we divide the 1048 type Ia supernovae (SNIa) of the Pantheon Survey into corresponding subsets according to their distribution in the galactic coordinate system. Obviously, each SNIa subset can only be used to reconstruct the profile of one segment. Finally, we can patch together an irregular profile for the local cosmic void with the whole Pantheon sample. Note that, the paucity of each data subset lead us to focus on the inner part of each void segment and assume that the half radii of the void segments are sufficient to constrain the whole segment. We find that, despite 2sigma signals of anisotropy limited to the depth of the void segments, the constraints on every void segment are consistent with Lambda CDM model at 95% CL. Moreover, our constraints are too weak to challenge the cosmic homogeneity and isotropy.

Dust scattered radiation in the galactic poles

Dust scattered radiation in the galactic poles

Discovery of periodic hot subdwarf variables through a systematic search in Zwicky Transient Facility data

ABSTRACT We conduct a systematic search for periodic variables in the hot subdwarf catalogue using data from the Zwicky Transient Facility. We present the classification of 67 HW Vir binaries, 496 reflection effect, pulsation or rotation sinusoids, 11 eclipsing signals, and 4 ellipsoidally modulated binaries. Of these, 486 are new discoveries that have not been previously published including a new mass-transferring hot subdwarf binary candidate. These sources were determined by applying the Lomb–Scargle and box least squares periodograms along with manual inspection. We calculated variability statistics on all periodic sources, and compared our results to traditional methods of determining astrophysical variability. We find that ≈60 per cent of variable targets, mostly sinusoidal variability, would have been missed using a traditional varindex cut. Most HW Virs, eclipsing systems, and all ellipsoidal variables were recovered with a varindex &amp;gt;0.02. We also find a significant reddening effect, with some variable hot subdwarfs meshing with the main-sequence stripe in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Examining the positions of the variable stars in Galactic coordinates, we discover a higher proportion of variable stars within |b| &amp;lt; 25° of the Galactic plane, suggesting that the Galactic plane may be fertile grounds for future discoveries if photometric surveys can effectively process the clustered field.

Mapping the Multiphase Structure of H i in the Low-latitude Intermediate-velocity Arch 1

We have analyzed the thermal and turbulent properties of the low-latitude intermediate-velocity Arch 1 (LLIV1). This was accomplished using archival H i emission and absorption data from two 21 cm line surveys: GHIGLS at 9.′4 resolution and DHIGLS at resolution. The spectral decomposition code ROHSA was used to model the column density of different thermal phases and also to analyze an absorption measurement against the radio source 4C +66.09. From the latter, we found spin temperature T s ∼ 75 K, cold gas mass fraction f ∼ 0.5, and turbulent sonic Mach number M t ∼ 3.4. Similar to the absorption line modeling against 4C +66.09, our best emission line decomposition model has no unstable gas across the whole field of view, suggesting that the thermal condensation and phase transition are not ongoing but rather have reached an equilibrium state. The cold phase of LLIV1 appears as a collection of elongated filaments that forms a closed structure within the field decomposed. These substructures follow the orientation of the overall large-scale cloud, along the diagonal of the GHIGLS field from northwest to southeast (in Galactic coordinates). The angular power spectrum of the cold phase is slightly shallower than that of the warm phase, quantifying that the cold phases have relatively more structure on small scales. Our spatially resolved map of the cold gas mass fraction in LLIV1 from DHIGLS reveals significant variations spanning the possible range of f, with a mean and standard deviation of 0.33 and 0.19, respectively.

Modelling Local Bubble analogs: synthetic dust polarization maps

ABSTRACT We present a study of synthetic observations of polarized dust emission at 353 GHz as seen by an observer within a cavity in the interstellar medium (ISM). The cavity is selected from a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the local ISM with time-dependent chemistry, star formation, and stellar feedback in form of supernova explosions with physical properties comparable to the Local Bubble ones. We find that the local density enhancement together with the coherent magnetic field in the cavity walls makes the selected candidate a translucent polarization filter to the emission coming from beyond its domains. This underlines the importance of studying the Local Bubble in further detail. The magnetic field lines inferred from synthetic dust polarization data are qualitatively in agreement with the all-sky maps of polarized emission at 353 GHz from the Planck satellite in the latitudes interval 15° ≲ |b| ≲ 65°. As our numerical simulation allows us to track the galactic mid-plane only out to distances of $250\,$ pc, we exclude the region |b| ≲ 15° from our analysis. At large galactic latitudes, our model exhibits a high degree of small-scale structures. On the contrary, the observed polarization pattern around the Galactic Poles is relatively coherent and regular, and we argue that the global toroidal magnetic field of the Milky Way is important for explaining the data at |b| ≳ 65°. We show that from our synthetic polarization maps, it is difficult to distinguish between an open and a closed galactic cap using the inferred magnetic field morphology alone.

Kinematical and ellipsoidal properties of K dwarfs in the solar neighborhood of the Gaia era

AbstractThe study reports velocity ellipsoid parameters including the kinematical properties of K dwarf stars. Herein, two samples of K dwarf stars are presented with the solar neighborhood ( pc) for high (; 106 points) and low galactic latitudes (; 199 points). We calculated spatial velocities (, , and ; km s) along the galactic coordinates and the velocity dispersion (, , ; km s), the vertex longitude (), which have often differed significantly from zero like many of our analyses, i.e., (; 106 points) and (; 199 points). Moreover, we computed the solar motion, i.e., km s, and other solar elements (e.g., , , , and ). Finally, we estimated Oort's constants, i.e., km s kpc and ‐ km s kpc, both indicating that the rotational velocity was km s.

Vertical Structure of the Milky Way Disk with Gaia DR3

Using a complete sample of about 330,000 dwarf stars, well measured by Gaia DR3, limited to the galactic north and south solid angles |b|&lt;75° and up to a vertical distance of 2 kpc, we analyze the vertical structure of the Milky Way stellar disks, based on projected tangential velocities. From selected subsamples dominated by their corresponding population, we obtain the thin and thick disk scale heights as hZ=279.76±12.49 pc and HZ=797.23±12.34 pc, respectively. Then from the simultaneous fitting of the sum of two populations over the whole sample, assuming these scale heights, we estimate the thick-to-thin disk number density ratio at the galactic plane to be ρT/ρt=0.750±0.049, which is consistent with a previous result by the authors: in the galactic plane there is a significant number of thick disk stars, possibly as many as thin disk ones, which also points to the existence of more thick disk stars than generally thought. The overall fit does not closely follow the data for |Z|&gt;700 pc and points to the presence of more stars beyond the thin disk that cannot be accounted for by the two-disk model.

Asymmetry between Galaxy Apparent Magnitudes Shows a Possible Tension between Physical Properties of Galaxies and Their Rotational Velocity

Despite over a century of research, the physics of galaxy rotation is not yet fully understood, and there is a clear discrepancy between the observed mass of galaxies and their rotational velocity. Here, we report on another observation of tension between the physical properties of galaxies and their rotational velocity. We compare the apparent magnitude of galaxies and find a statistically significant asymmetry between galaxies that rotate in the same direction relative to the Milky Way and galaxies that rotate in the opposite direction relative to the Milky Way. While asymmetry in the brightness is expected due to the Doppler shift effect, such asymmetry is expected to be subtle. The observations shown here suggest that the magnitude difference is sufficiently large to be detected by Earth-based telescopes. The asymmetry is consistent in both the northern and southern galactic poles. The difference is also consistent across several different instruments such as DECam, SDSS, Pan-STARRS, and HST as well as different annotation methods, which include automatic, manual, or crowdsourcing annotations through “Galaxy Zoo”. The observation can also explain other anomalies such as the Ho tension. Analysis of Ia supernovae where the host galaxies rotate in the same direction relative to the Milky Way shows a much smaller tension with the Ho value as estimated by the CMB.

Determination of the Time and Coordinates Required for Measuring the Milky Way’s Rotation Curve Using BURT in 2023

Baghdad University Radio Telescope (BURT) is a 3 meter radio telescope that was installed in the main campus of the University of Baghdad in Jadiriyah. Radio telescopes, in general, offer a wide range of applications in radio astronomy, which are usually used to detect the neutral hydrogen emission line at a wavelength of 21 cm. One of the key applications of BURT is to observe the Milky Way galaxy and to determine its rotation curve. However, performing such observations requires accurate determination of the appropriate observing time as well as the coordinates. This paper focuses on how the observing time and coordinates are calculated correctly and accurately. The horizontal coordinate that corresponds to the galactic coordinates (b=0° and 0° ≤ l ≤ 90°) in every single day of 2023 at 10 am have been calculated using a c++ code that has been written for the purpose of this work. The results showed that the appropriate time for observing the Milky Way using BURT in 2023 is during January, February, March, November and December of 2023. The medians of altitude during those months are 50.9798°, 62.7919°, 50.6198°, 9.6562° and 30.5041°, respectively. During those months, the altitude is found, in general, larger than zero which means that the galactic position is above the horizon.

Infrared polarisation study of Lynds 1340: A case of RNO 8

This paper describes the polarisation study of a Lynds cloud, LDN 1340, $$\alpha = 2$$ h32m and $$\delta = 73^{\circ } 00^\prime $$ corresponding to galactic coordinates of $$\ell = 130^{\circ }.07$$ and $$b=$$ 11 $$^{\circ }.6$$ , with emphasis on the RNO 8 area. The cloud has been observed using the 1.2 m telescope at Mt. Abu Infrared Observatory, in the infrared wavelength band using the Near-Infrared Camera, Spectrograph and Polarimeter instrument. The polarimetric observations were used to map the magnetic field geometry around the region. We combined our measurements with archival data from the 2MASS and WISE surveys. The Gaia EDR3 and DR3 data for the same region were used for distance, proper motion, and other astrophysical information. The analysis of the data reveals areas with ordered polarisation vectors in the region of RNO 8. The position angle measurements reveal polarisation due to dichroic extinction which is consistent with the Galactic magnetic field. The magnetic field strength was calculated for the RNO 8 region using the Chandrashekhar–Fermi method and the value estimated is $$\sim $$ 42 $$\mu $$ G.

Asymmetric eROSITA bubbles as the evidence of a circumgalactic medium wind

The eROSITA bubbles are detected via the instrument with the same name. The northern bubble shows noticeable asymmetric features, including distortion to the west and enhancement in the eastern edge, while the southern counterpart is significantly dimmer. Their origins are debated. Here, we performed hydrodynamic simulations showing that asymmetric eROSITA bubbles favor a dynamic, circumgalactic medium wind model, but disfavor other mechanisms such as a non-axisymmetric halo gas or a tilted nuclear outflow. The wind from the east by north direction in Galactic coordinates blows across the northern halo with a velocity of about 200 km s−1, and part of it enters the southern halo. This creates a dynamic halo medium and redistributes both density and metallicity within. This naturally explains the asymmetric bubbles in both the morphology and surface brightness. Our results suggest that our Galaxy is accreting low-abundance circumgalactic medium from one side while providing outflow feedback.

Creating a new paradigm for the local interstellar medium–A perspective

The interstellar medium close to the Sun called the local ISM (LISM) provides critical insights into physical processes and phenomena in the more distant interstellar medium in our Galaxy without the confusion of many complex structures in the sight lines to distant stars. High-resolution ultraviolet spectra are powerful diagnostic tools for understanding the LISM together with the observed properties of the outer heliosphere and hydrogen wall absorption in the astrospheres of nearby stars. For nearly 30 years the kinematic structure of the LISM has been identified from measured radial velocities of interstellar gas along many sight lines distributed across a wide range of Galactic coordinates. These data permitted the identification of three dimensional velocity vectors characterizing “clouds”. While this simple structure robustly predicts the radial velocities and associated clouds along newly observed sight lines, there are many challenges to this multi-cloud model that could lead to a revised model of the LISM. This paper reviews the assumptions and accomplishments of the multi-cloud model, and describes how the various challenges to this model could lead to a more comprehensive model with insight into physical processes and structures in the Galactic interstellar medium.

Spiral-like features in the disc revealed by Gaia DR3 radial actions

Context. The so-called action variables are specific functions of the positions and velocities that remain constant along the stellar orbit. The astrometry provided by Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3), combined with the velocities inferred from the Radial Velocity Spectrograph (RVS) spectra of Gaia DR3, allows for the estimation of these actions for the largest volume of stars to date. Aims. We explore such actions with the aim of locating structures in the Galactic disc. Methods. We computed the actions and the orbital parameters of the Gaia DR3 stars, assuming an axisymmetric model for the Milky Way. Using Gaia DR3 photometric data, we also selected a subset of giant stars with better astrometry as a control sample. Results. We find that the maps of the percentiles of the radial action JR reveal arc-like segments. We found a high JR region centered at R ≈ 10.5 kpc of 1 kpc width, as well as three arc-shape regions dominated by circular orbits at inner radii. We also identified the spiral arms in the overdensities of the giant population. Conclusions. For Galactic coordinates (X, Y, Z), we find good agreement with the literature in the innermost region for the Scutum-Sagittarius spiral arms. At larger radii, the low JR structure tracks the Local arm at negative X, while for the Perseus arm, the agreement is restricted to the X &lt; 2 kpc region, with a displacement with respect to the literature at more negative longitudes. We detected a high JR area at a Galactocentric radii of ∼10.5 kpc, consistent with some estimations of the Outer Lindblad Resonance location. We conclude that the pattern in the dynamics of the old stars is consistent in several places with the spatial distribution of the spiral arms traced by young populations, with small potential contributions from the moving groups.

Distance determination of molecular clouds in the first quadrant of the Galactic plane using deep learning: I. Method and results

Abstract Machine learning has been successfully applied in various field but whether it is a viable tool for determining the distance to molecular clouds in the Galaxy is an open question. In the Galaxy, the kinematic distance is commonly employed to represent the distance to a molecular cloud. However, for the inner Galaxy, two different solutions, i.e., the “Near” solution and the “Far” solution, can be derived simultaneously. We attempt to construct a two-class (“Near” or “Far”) inference model using a convolutional neural network (CNN), which is a form of deep learning that can capture spatial features generally. In this study, we use the CO dataset in the first quadrant of the Galactic plane obtained with the Nobeyama 45 m radio telescope (l = 62°–10°, |b| &amp;lt; 1°). In the model, we apply the three-dimensional distribution (position–position–velocity) of the 12CO (J = 1–0) emissions as the main input. To train the model, a dataset with “Near” or “Far” annotation was created from the H ii region catalog of the infrared astronomy satellite WISE. Consequently, we construct a CNN model with a $76\% $ accuracy rate on the training dataset. Using the proposed model, we determine the distance to the molecular clouds identified by the CLUMPFIND algorithm. We found that the mass of molecular clouds with a distance of &amp;lt;8.15 kpc identified in the 12CO data follows a power-law distribution with an index of approximately −2.3 in the mass range M &amp;gt; 103 M⊙. In addition, the detailed molecular gas distribution of the Galaxy, as seen from the Galactic North pole, was determined.

Position and Proper Motion of Sagittarius A* in the ICRF3 Frame from VLBI Absolute Astrometry

Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is a strong, compact radio source believed to be powered by a supermassive black hole at the galactic center. Extinction by dust and gas in the galactic plane prevents observing it optically, but its position and proper motion have previously been estimated using radio interferometry. We present new VLBI absolute astrometry measurements of its precise position and proper motion in the frame of the third realization of the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF3). The observations used were made at 52 epochs on the VLBA at K band (24 GHz) between 2006 June and 2022 August. We find the proper motion of Sgr A* to be −3.128 ± 0.042 mas yr−1 in R.A. and −5.584 ± 0.075 mas yr−1 in decl., or 6.400 ± 0.073 mas yr−1 at a position angle of 209.°26 ± 0.°51. We also find its J2000 ICRF3 coordinates at the 2015.0 proper motion epoch to be 17h45m40.ˢ034047 ± 0.ˢ000018, −29°00′28.″21601 ± 0.″00044. In galactic coordinates, Sgr A* shows proper motion of −6.396 ± 0.071 mas yr−1 in galactic longitude and −0.239 ± 0.045 mas yr−1 in galactic latitude, indicating solar motion of 248.0 ± 2.8 km s−1 in the galactic plane and 9.3 ± 1.9 km s−1 toward the north galactic pole.

Gaia-IGRINS synergy: Orbits of newly identified Milky Way star clusters

Context. The recent and exquisite astrometric, photometric, and radial velocity measurements of the Gaia mission resulted in a substantial advancement of the determination of the orbits for old star clusters, including the oldest Milky Way globular clusters (MW GCs). Aims. The main goal of the present paper is to use the new Gaia data release 3 (DR3) and the VISTA Variables in the Via Láctea Extended Survey (VVVX) measurements to obtain the orbits for nearly a dozen new MW GC candidates that have been poorly studied or previously unexplored. Methods. We use the Gaia DR3 and VVVX databases to identify bona fide MW GC candidates, namely VVV-CL160, Patchick 122, Patchick 125, Patchick 126, Kronberger 99, Kronberger 119, Kronberger 143, ESO 92-18, ESO 93-08, Gaia 2, and Ferrero 54. The relevant mean cluster physical parameters are derived (distances, Galactic coordinates, proper motions, radial velocities). We also measure accurate mean radial velocities for the GCs VVV-CL160 and Patchick 126 using observations acquired at the Gemini-South telescope with the Immersion GRating INfrared Spectrometer (IGRINS) high-resolution spectrograph. Orbits for each cluster are then computed using the GravPot16 model, assuming typical Galactic bar pattern speeds. Results. We reconstruct the orbits for these 11 star clusters for the first time. These include star clusters with retrograde and prograde orbital motions, both in the Galactic bulge and disk. We obtain orbital properties for this sample, such as the mean time-variations of perigalactic and apogalactic distances, eccentricities, vertical excursions from the Galactic plane, and Z-components of the angular momentum. Conclusions. Our main conclusion is that, based on the orbital parameters, Patchick 125 and Patchick 126 are genuine MW bulge or halo GCs; and Ferrero 54, Gaia 2, and Patchick 122 are MW disk GCs. In contrast, the orbits of Kronberger 99, Kronberger 119, Kronberger 143, ESO 92-18, and ESO 93-08 are more consistent with old MW disk open clusters, in agreement with previous results. VVV-CL160 falls very close to the Galactic centre, but reaches larger distances beyond the Solar orbit, and therefore its origin is still unclear.