Gaia DR3 features of the phase spiral and its possible relation to internal perturbations

TL;DR

This study investigates the Gaia DR3 phase spiral in the Milky Way, revealing its dependence on position and perturbations, and models how internal and external influences can produce the observed spiral patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the phase spiral's structure and origin, demonstrating how internal perturbations and vertical disturbances can generate the observed patterns.

Findings

Two-armed phase spiral inside the solar radius

Breathing mode evidence in velocity maps

Simulation of perturbations producing phase spirals

Abstract

Disc stars from the Gaia DR3 RVS catalogue are selected to explore the phase spiral as a function of position in the Galaxy. The data reveal a two-armed phase spiral pattern in the local $z-v_z$ plane inside the solar radius, which appears clearly when colour-coded by $\langle v_R \rangle (z,v_z)$: this is characteristic of a breathing mode that can in principle be produced by in-plane non-axisymmetric perturbations. We note the phase spiral pattern becomes single armed outside the solar radius. When a realistic analytic model with an axisymmetric background potential plus a steadily rotating bar and 2-armed spiral arms as perturbation is used to perform particle test integrations, the pseudo stars get a prominent spiral pattern in the $\langle v_R \rangle$ map in the $x-y$ plane. Additionally, clear breathing mode evidence at a few $\rm{kms}^{-1}$ level can be seen in the $\langle v_z \rangle$ map on the $x-z$ plane, confirming that such breathing modes are non-negligible in the joint presence of a bar and spiral arms. However, no phase-spiral is perceptible in the $(z, v_z)$ plane. When an initial vertical perturbation is added to all pseudo stars to carry out the simulation, the one-armed phase spirals can clearly be seen 500~Myr after the perturbation and gradually disappear inside-out. Finally, we show as a proof of concept how a toy model of a time-varying non-axisymmetric in-plane perturbation with varying amplitude and pattern speed can produce a strong two-armed phase-spiral. We conclude a time-varying strong internal perturbation together with an external vertical perturbation could perhaps explain the transition between the two-armed and one-armed phase-spirals around the Solar radius.