Self-consistent modelling of the Milky Way's Nuclear Stellar Disc

TL;DR

This paper develops axisymmetric dynamical models of the Milky Way's Nuclear Stellar Disc, fitting to kinematic data and accounting for Galactic Bar contamination, providing a detailed 6D distribution function.

Contribution

It introduces self-consistent, analytic action-based models of the NSD fitted to observational data, including contamination effects, and makes these models publicly available.

Findings

Estimated NSD mass: ~10.5 x 10^8 solar masses

Radial scale-length: ~89 pc, vertical scale-height: ~28 pc

Velocity dispersion: ~70 km/s decreasing with radius

Abstract

The Nuclear Stellar Disc (NSD) is a flattened high-density stellar structure that dominates the gravitational field of the Milky Way at Galactocentric radius $30\lesssim R\lesssim 300$ pc. We construct axisymmetric self-consistent equilibrium dynamical models of the NSD in which the distribution function is an analytic function of the action variables. We fit the models to the normalised kinematic distributions (line-of-sight velocities + VIRAC2 proper motions) of stars in the NSD survey of Fritz et al., taking the foreground contamination due to the Galactic Bar explicitly into account using an $N$-body model. The posterior marginalised probability distributions give a total mass of $M_{\rm NSD} = 10.5^{+1.1}_{-1.0} \times10^8 \,{\rm M_\odot}$, roughly exponential radial and vertical scale-lengths of $R_{\rm disc} = 88.6^{+9.2}_{-6.9}$ pc and $H_{\rm disc}=28.4^{+5.5}_{-5.5}$ pc respectively, and a velocity dispersion $\sigma \simeq 70$ km/s that decreases with radius. We find that the assumption that the NSD is axisymmetric provides a good representation of the data. We quantify contamination from the Galactic Bar in the sample, which is substantial in most observed fields. Our models provide the full 6D (position+velocity) distribution function of the NSD, which can be used to generate predictions for future surveys. We make the models publicly available as part of the software package AGAMA.