Disentangling the Virgo Overdensity with RR Lyrae stars

TL;DR

This study identifies and characterizes multiple substructures within the Virgo Overdensity using RR Lyrae stars, revealing complex halo features and potential multiple accretion origins.

Contribution

It introduces a phase-space clustering analysis of RR Lyrae stars to disentangle overlapping halo substructures in the Virgo Overdensity region.

Findings

Six high significance groups of RR Lyrae stars identified.

The Virgo Stellar Stream (VSS) has 18 RR Lyrae stars, doubling previous counts.

Multiple overdensities suggest a complex, multi-origin structure.

Abstract

We use a combination of spatial distribution and radial velocity to search for halo sub-structures in a sample of 412 RR Lyrae stars (RRLS) that covers a $\sim 525$ square degrees region of the Virgo Overdensity (VOD) and spans distances from the Sun from 4 to 75 kpc. With a friends-of-friends algorithm we identified six high significance groups of RRLS in phase space, which we associate mainly with the VOD and with the Sagittarius stream. Four other groups were also flagged as less significant overdensities. Three high significance and 3 lower significance groups have distances between $\sim 10$ and 20 kpc, which places them with the distance range attributed by others to the VOD. The largest of these is the Virgo Stellar Stream (VSS) at 19 kpc, which has 18 RRLS, a factor of 2 increase over the number known previously. While these VOD groups are distinct according to our selection cirteria, their overlap in position and distance, and, in a few cases, similarity in radial velocity are suggestive that they may not all stem separate accretion events. Even so, the VOD appears to be caused by more than one overdensity. The Sgr stream is a very obvious feature in the background of the VOD at a mean distance of 44 kpc. Two additional high significant groups were detected at distances $>40$ kpc. Their radial velocities and locations differ from the expected path of the Sgr debris in this part of the sky, and they are likely to be remnants of other accretion events.