On the possibility of determining the distance to the Galactic center from the geometry of spiral arm segments

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new geometric method to estimate the distance to the Galactic center using spiral arm segments, providing an independent measurement with an estimate of approximately 8.44 kpc.

Contribution

A simplified three-point geometric method for estimating the Galactic center distance from spiral arm data is introduced and tested on maser observations.

Findings

Estimated $R_0$ = 8.44 ± 0.45 kpc from maser data.

Method demonstrates statistical robustness in $R_0$ estimation.

Provides an independent geometric approach to Galactic distance measurement.

Abstract

A new approach to determining the solar galactocentric distance, $R_0$, from the geometry of spiral-arm segments is proposed. Geometric aspects of the problem are analyzed and a simplified three-point method for estimating $R_0$ from objects in a spiral segment is developed in order to test the proposed approach. An estimate of $R_0 = 8.44 \pm 0.45$ kpc is obtained by applying the method to masers with measured trigonometric parallaxes, and statistical properties of the $R_0$ estimation from spiral segments are analyzed.