Determination of the escape velocity of the Milky Way using a proper motion selected halo sample

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia proper motion data of halo stars to accurately estimate the Milky Way's escape velocity and dark matter halo parameters, providing new constraints on the galaxy's mass distribution.

Contribution

First use of tangential velocities from Gaia halo stars to estimate the Milky Way's escape velocity and dark matter halo properties.

Findings

Escape velocity near the Sun is approximately 497 km/s, likely biased low by 10%.

Estimated Milky Way halo mass is about 1.11 x 10^12 solar masses with a concentration of 11.8.

Discrepancies in escape velocity beyond the solar radius suggest complex velocity structures.

Abstract

The {\it Gaia} mission has provided the largest catalogue ever of sources with tangential velocity information. However, using this catalogue for dynamical studies is difficult because most of the stars lack line-of-sight velocity measurements. Recently, we presented a selection of $\sim 10^7$ halo stars with accurate distances that have been selected based on their photometry and proper motions. Using this sample, we model the tail of the velocity distribution with a power-law distribution, a commonly used approach first established by \cite{Leonard1990THESPEED}. For the first time ever we use tangential velocities measured accurately for an unprecedented number of halo stars to estimate the escape velocity. In the solar neighbourhood, we obtain a very precise estimate of the escape velocity which is $497^{+8}_{-8}~{\rm km/s}$. This estimate is most likely biased low, our best guess is by 10\%. As a result, the true escape velocity most likely is closer to $550~{\rm km/s}$. The escape velocity directly constrains the total mass of the Milky Way. To find the best fitting halo mass and concentration parameter we adjusted the dark (spherical NFW) halo of a realistic Milky Way potential while keeping the circular velocity at the solar radius fixed at $v_c(R_\odot) = 232.8~{\rm km/s}$. The resulting halo parameters are $M_{200}^{+10\%} = 1.11^{+0.08}_{-0.07} \cdot10^{12} ~{\rm M}_\odot$ and concentration parameter $c^{+10\%} = 11.8^{+0.3}_{-0.3}$, where we use the explicit notation to indicate that these have been corrected for the 10\% bias. The slope of the escape velocity with galactocentric distance is as expected in the inner Galaxy based on Milky Way models. Curiously, we find a disagreement beyond the solar radius which is likely an effect of a change in the shape of the velocity distribution and could be related to the presence of velocity clumps.