Estimating the vertical disk scale height using young galactic objects

We compiled published data on young Galactic objects such as masers with VLBI-measured trigonometric parallaxes, OB associations, H II regions and Cepheids. We have recently established that the vertical disk scale height is strongly influenced by objects of the Local arm. In this study we use samples that do not contain objects in this arm and derive the following vertical disk scale heights in terms of the self-gravitating isothermal disk model for the density distribution: h=46±5 pc for 69 masers with trigonometric parallaxes, h=36±3 pc for 59 OB associations, h=35.6±2.7 pc for 147 H II regions, h=52.1±1.9 pc for 195 young Cepheids, and h=72.0±2.3 pc for 192 old Cepheids.