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Galactic Disk Surface Density in the Solar Neighbourhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2016

William F. van Altena
Affiliation:
Yale University, Department of Astronomy, New Haven, USA
Vladimir I. Korchagin
Affiliation:
Yale University, Department of Astronomy, New Haven, USA
Terrence M. Girard
Affiliation:
Yale University, Department of Astronomy, New Haven, USA
Dana I. Dinescu
Affiliation:
Yale University, Department of Astronomy, New Haven, USA
Tatiana V. Borkova
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

Abstract

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Using parallaxes and proper motions of a kinematically and spatially unbiased sample of old bright red giant stars from the Hipparcos catalog with measured radial velocities from Barbier-Brossat & Figon (2000), we have re-estimated the surface density of the Galactic disk in the solar neighbourhood within ±0.4 kpc of the Sun. We determine the vertical distribution of the red giants as well as the vertical velocity dispersion of the sample, (14.4±0.26 km/sec), and combine these to derive the surface density of gravitating matter in the Galactic disk. Using these data, we determine the surface density of the galactic disk as a function of the galactic coordinate, z. the surface density of the disk increases from 10.5 ±0.5 Mwithin ±50 pc to 42 ±6 M/pc2 within ±350 pc. The volume density of the galactic disk within ±50 pc is 0.105±0.005 M/pc3, which is only marginally greater (within 2 sigma) than the volume density estimates of observed baryonic matter in the solar neighbourhood.

Type
Part 6: The Galaxy
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

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