Modeling the Vertical Distribution of the Milky Way’s Flat Subsystem Objects

This paper is an initial stage of consideration of the general problem of joint modeling of the vertical structure of a Galactic flat subsystem and the average surface of the disk of the Galaxy,taking into account the natural and measurement dispersions.We approximate the average surface of the Galactic disk in the region covered by the data with a general(polynomial)model and determine its parameters by minimizing the squared deviations of objects along the normal to the model surface.The smoothness of the model,i.e.,its order n,is optimized.An outlier elimination algorithm is applied.The developed method allows us to simultaneously identify significant details of the Galactic warping and estimate the offset z_(⊙) of the Sun relative to the average(in general,non-flat)surface of the Galactic disk and the vertical scale of the object system under consideration for an arbitrary area of the disk covered by data.The method is applied to data on classical Cepheids.Significant local extremes of the average disk surface model were found based on Cepheid data:the minimum in the first Galactic quadrant and the maximum in the second.A well-known warp(lowering of the disk surface)in the third quadrant has been confirmed.The optimal order of the model describing all these warping details was found to be n_(o)=4.The local(for a small neighborhood of the Sun,n_(o)=0)estimate of z_(⊙)=28.1±6.1|_(stat).±1.3|_(cal).pc is close to the non-local(taking into account warping,n_(o)=4)z_(⊙)=27.1±8.8|_(stat.-1.2)^(+1.3)|_(cal).pc(statistical and calibration uncertainties are indicated),which suggests that the proposed modeling method eliminates the influence of warping on the z_(⊙) estimate.However,the non-local estimate of the vertical standard deviation of Cepheids σ_(p)=132.0±3.7|_(stat.-5.9)^(+6.3)|_(cal).pc differs significantly from the local σ_(ρ)=76.5±4.4|_(stat.-3.4)^(+3.6)|_(cal).pc,which implies the need to introduce more complex models for the vertical distribution outside the Sun’s vicinity.

On the possible orbital motion of Sgr A* in the smooth potential of the Milky Way

The modern accuracy of measurements allows the residual/peculiar(Galactocentric) velocity of the supermassive black hole(SMBH) in our Galaxy, Sgr A*, on the order of several kilometers per second.We integrate possible orbits of the SMBH along with the surrounding nuclear stellar cluster(NSC) for a barred model of the Galaxy using modern constraints on the components of the SMBH Galactocentric velocity. Is is shown that the range of oscillations of the SMBH + NSC in a regular Galactic field in the plane of the Galaxy allowed by these constraints strongly depends on the set of central components of the Galactic potential. If the central components are represented only by a bulge/bar, for a point estimate of the SMBH Galactocentric velocity, the oscillation amplitude does not exceed 7 pc in the case that a classical bulge is present and reaches 25 pc if there is no bulge;with SMBH velocity components within the 2σ significance level, the amplitude can reach 15 and 50 pc, respectively. However, when taking into account the nuclear stellar disk(NSD), even in the absence of a bulge, the oscillation amplitude is only 5 pc for the point estimate of the SMBH velocity, and 10 pc for the 2σ significance level. Thus, the possible oscillations of the SMBH + NSC complex from the confirmed components of the Galaxy’s potential are mostly limited by the NSD, and even taking into account the uncertainty of the mass of the latter, the oscillation amplitude can hardly exceed 13 pc = 6′.

Segments of spiral arms of the Galaxy traced by classical Cepheids:effects of age heterogeneity

We investigated the dependence of the parameters of the segments of spiral arms of the Galaxy on the age of classical Cepheids.The catalog of Cepheids(Mel’nik et al.)was divided into two samples—relatively young(P>9d)and relatively old(P<9d)objects.The parameters of the spiral structure were determined both for two samples separately and jointly for the combination of two systems of segments traced by young and old objects.For most of the segments,their parameters for young and old objects differ significantly.Taking into account the difference between the two segment systems,we obtained the estimate R0 equal to 7.23^+0.19/-0.18 kpc,which in the modern Large Magellanic Cloud(LMC)calibration corresponds to the value of R0=8.08^+0.2/-10.20|stat.^+0.38/-0.36|cal.kpc.It is shown that the displacement between the segments is not reduced to the effect of differential rotation only.To interpret this displacement for objects of Perseus and Sagittarius-2 segments,we carried out a dynamic modeling of the change in the position of the segment points when moving in the smooth gravitational field of the Galaxy.At the angular velocity of rotation of the spiral pattern Ωp=25.2±0.5 km s 1 kpc 1(Dambis et al.)the observed displacement between segments on young and old objects can be explained by the amplitude of spiral perturbations of the radial velocity of u=10±1.5 km s 1.For the constructed double system of spiral segments,it is demonstrated that the assumption of constancy of the pitch angles within each segment and the assumption that the pole of the spiral pattern is in the direction of the nominal center of the Galaxy do not contradict the data within the range of uncertainty.