Mean Velocity of Local Populations: Axiality, Age and Time Dependence
Abstract
The mean velocity of local stellar populations is analyzed by building a set of hierarchically selected samples from Hipparcos catalog, with the full space motions. The technique for scanning populations, MEMPHIS (Maximum Entropy of the Mixture Probability from HIerarchical Segregation), is a combination of two separate procedures: A sample selecting filter (Alcobé & Cubarsi 2005, A&A 442, 292) and a segregation method (Cubarsi & Alcobé 2004, A&A 427, 131). By continuously increasing the sampling parameter, in our case the absolute value of the stellar velocity, we build a set of nested subsamples containing an increasing number of populations. A bimodal pattern is then applied in order to identify differentiated kinematic populations. The resulting populations can be identified as early-type stars, young disk stars, old disk stars, and thick disk stars. Discontinuities of the velocity dispersion are found for early-type and thick disk stars, while young and old disk stars show a continuous trend that is asymptotically represented by the thin disk galactic component. Similarly, the mean velocity of early-type stars shows a particular behavior, while the remaining populations share a similar average motion. The later populations are studied on the basis of a time-dependent and non-axial Chandrasekhar model, allowing to estimate the degree of deviation from axial symmetry and steady-state hypotheses, as well as the average age of each population. According to this model, the no net radial movement point can be evaluated, having heliocentric velocities U=-18 ± 1 km/s in the radial direction, which is very close to the radial mean velocity of early-type stars, and V=-76 ± 2 km/s in rotation. The remaining populations share a common differential galactic movement, suggesting a common dynamical origin for the rupture of the axial symmetry.
- Publication:
-
Galaxy Evolution across the Hubble Time
- Pub Date:
- May 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921306005229
- Bibcode:
- 2007IAUS..235...85C