Estimation of Galactic Spiral Density Wave Parameters Based on the Velocities of OB2 stars from the Gaia EDR3 Catalogue

TL;DR

This study analyzes Gaia EDR3 OB2 star velocities to estimate Galactic spiral density wave parameters, revealing significant velocity perturbations and providing detailed estimates of spiral structure characteristics.

Contribution

It presents new estimates of spiral density wave parameters using a large OB2 star sample from Gaia EDR3, including velocity perturbation amplitudes and wavelengths, with high statistical significance.

Findings

Velocity perturbation amplitudes are nonzero with high significance.

Estimated wavelengths of spiral density waves are around 2.1-2.2 kpc.

Derived phase angles of the Sun in the spiral pattern are approximately -116° and -156°.

Abstract

We have analyzed the kinematics of 9750 OB2 stars with proper motions and parallaxes selected by Xu et al. from the Gaia EDR3 catalogue. The relative parallax errors for these stars do not exceed 10\%. Based on the entire sample of stars, we have found the velocities $(U,V)_\odot=(7.17,7.37)\pm(0.16,0.24)$ km s$^{-1}$ and the components of the angular velocity of Galactic rotation: $\Omega_0 =29.700\pm0.076$ km s$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-1}$, $\Omega^{'}_0 =-4.008\pm0.022$ km s$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-2}$, and $\Omega^{''}_0 = 0.671\pm0.011$ km s$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-3}$, where the linear rotation velocity of the Galaxy at the solar distance is $V_0=240.6\pm3.0$ km s$^{-1}$ for the adopted $R_0=8.1\pm0.1$ kpc. There are 1812 OB2 stars with measured line-of-sight velocities, and the space velocities $V_R$ and $\Delta V_{circ}$ have been calculated from them. Based on a spectral analysis independently for the radial and residual tangential velocities, we have obtained the following estimates: $f_R=4.8\pm0.7$ km s$^{-1}$, $f_\theta=4.1\pm0.9$ km s$^{-1}$, $\lambda_R=2.1\pm0.2$ kpc, $\lambda_\theta=2.2\pm0.4$ kpc, $(\chi_\odot)_R=-116\pm12^\circ$, and $(\chi_\odot)_\theta=-156\pm14^\circ$ for the adopted four-armed ($m = 4$) spiral pattern. Thus, both velocity perturbation amplitudes are nonzero at a high significance level.