The Velocity Anisotropy of Distant Milky Way Halo Stars from Hubble Space Telescope Proper Motions

TL;DR

This study measures the proper motions of distant Milky Way halo stars using HST data to determine their velocity anisotropy, revealing a nearly isotropic velocity distribution at ~24 kpc, which informs galaxy formation models.

Contribution

It introduces a maximum likelihood method to derive the velocity ellipsoid of halo stars from proper motions at large distances, providing new insights into halo kinematics.

Findings

Halo stars exhibit near isotropic velocity distribution at ~24 kpc.

Velocity anisotropy parameter beta is approximately 0, indicating isotropy.

Results suggest less radial bias than local measurements, hinting at complex halo structure.

Abstract

Based on long baseline (5-7 years) multi-epoch HST/ACS photometry, used previously to measure the proper motion of M31, we present the proper motions (PMs) of 13 main-sequence Milky Way halo stars. The sample lies at an average distance of r ~24 kpc from the Galactic center, with a root-mean-square spread of 6 kpc. At this distance, the median PM accuracy is 5 km/s. We devise a maximum likelihood routine to determine the tangential velocity ellipsoid of the stellar halo. The velocity second moments in the directions of the Galactic (l,b) system are < vl^2 >^{1/2} = 123 (+29, -23) km/s, and < vb^2 >^{1/2} = 83 (+24, -16) km/s. We combine these results with the known line-of-sight second moment, < vlos^2 >^{1/2} = 105 \pm 5$ km/s, at this < r > to study the velocity anisotropy of the halo. We find approximate isotropy between the radial and tangential velocity distributions, with anisotropy parameter beta = 0.0 (+0.2, -0.4). Our results suggest that the stellar halo velocity anisotropy out to r ~ 30 kpc is less radially biased than solar neighborhood measurements. This is opposite to what is expected from violent relaxation, and may indicate the presence of a shell-type structure at r ~ 24 kpc. With additional multi-epoch HST data, the method presented here has the ability to measure the transverse kinematics of the halo for more stars, and to larger distances. This can yield new improved constraints on the stellar halo formation mechanism, and the mass of the Milky Way.