Local Kinematics and the Local Standard of Rest

TL;DR

This paper re-evaluates the Sun's velocity relative to the local standard of rest, revealing a higher V component than previously thought, by accounting for metallicity gradients affecting stellar kinematics.

Contribution

It introduces a chemodynamical model that corrects for metallicity gradient effects, providing revised estimates of the Sun's motion in the Galaxy.

Findings

V_sun component is 7 km/s larger than previous estimates.

The new solar motion values are insensitive to metallicity gradient variations.

Revised solar motion components are (U,V,W) = (11.1, 12.24, 7.25) km/s.

Abstract

We re-examine the stellar kinematics of the Solar neighbourhood in terms of the velocity of the Sun with respect to the local standard of rest. We show that the classical determination of its component V_sun in the direction of Galactic rotation via Stroemberg's relation is undermined by the metallicity gradient in the disc, which introduces a correlation between the colour of a group of stars and the radial gradients of its properties. Comparing the local stellar kinematics to a chemodynamical model which accounts for these effects, we obtain (U,V,W)_sun = (11.1 +/- 0.74, 12.24 +/- 0.47, 7.25 +/-0.37) km/s, with additional systematic uncertainties of ~ (1,2,0.5) km/s. In particular, V_sun is 7 km/s larger than previously estimated. The new values of solar motion are extremely insensitive to the metallicity gradient within the disc.