Influence of the Galactic bar on the kinematics of the disc stars with Gaia EDR3 data

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia EDR3 data to analyze how the Galactic bar influences disc star kinematics, developing a model that matches observed velocity features and estimating the bar's pattern speed and orientation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a Galactic model incorporating the bar that accurately reproduces observed velocity features and estimates key parameters like bar pattern speed and orientation.

Findings

The velocity distribution shows a smooth radial velocity fall and a sharp azimuthal velocity drop near the Sun.

The best-fitting Galactic model suggests the bar's pattern speed is 55+/-3 km/s/kpc.

The bar's position angle is estimated at 45+/-15 degrees.

Abstract

A model of the Galaxy with the outer ring R1R2 can explain the observed distribution of the radial, VR, and azimuthal, VT, velocity components along the Galactocentric distance, R, derived from the Gaia EDR3 data. We selected stars from the Gaia EDR3 catalogue with reliable parallaxes, proper motions and line-of-sight velocities lying near the Galactic plane, |z|<200 pc, and in the sector of the Galactocentic angles |theta|<15 degrees and calculated the median velocities VR and VT in small bins along the distance R. The distribution of observed velocities appears to have some specific features: the radial velocity VR demonstrates a smooth fall from +5 km s-1 at the distance of R=R0-1.5 kpc to -3 km s-1 at R=R0+1.0 kpc while the azimuthal velocity VT shows a sharp drop by 7 km s-1 in the distance interval R0<R<R0+1.0 kpc, where R0 is the solar Galactocentric distance. We build a model of the Galaxy including bulge, bar, disc and halo components, which reproduces the observed specific features of the velocity distribution in the Galactocentric distance interval |R-R0|< 1.5 kpc. The best agreement corresponds to the time 1.8+/-0.5 Gyr after the start of the simulation. A model of the Galaxy with the bar rotating at the angular velocity of Omega_b=55+/-3 km s-1 kpc-1, which sets the OLR of the bar at the distance of R0-0.5+/-0.4 kpc, provides the best agreement between the model and observed velocities. The position angle of the bar, theta_b, corresponding to the best agreement between the model and observed velocities is theta_b=45+/-15 degrees.