Humps on the profiles of the radial-velocity distribution and the age of the Galactic bar

TL;DR

This study models the Milky Way's bar to explain observed velocity distributions, revealing periodic velocity humps and linking them to the bar's age, estimated at around 2 or 4 billion years.

Contribution

The paper introduces a detailed dynamical model connecting velocity humps with the Galactic bar's age, supported by Gaia DR3 data analysis.

Findings

Velocity VR shows periodic humps at 6-7 kpc from the Galactic center.

Estimated bar age is approximately 2 or 4 billion years based on velocity profile analysis.

28% of stars are trapped in libration orbits near the Outer Lindblad Resonance.

Abstract

We studied the model of the Galaxy with a bar which reproduces well the distributions of the observed radial, VR, and azimuthal, VT, velocities derived from the Gaia DR3 data along the Galactocentric distance R. The model profiles of the distributions of the velocity VR demonstrate a periodic increase and the formation of a hump (elevation) in the distance range of 6--7 kpc. The average amplitude and period of variations in the velocity VR are A=1.76 +/- 0.15 km s-1 and P=2.1 +/- 0.1 Gyr. We calculated angles theta_01, theta_02 and theta_03 which determine orientations of orbits relative to the major axis of the bar at the time intervals: 0--1, 1--2 and 2--3 Gyr from the start of simulation. Stars whose orbits change orientations as follows: 0 <theta_01< 45 degrees, -45 <theta_02< 0 degrees and 0 <theta_03< 45 degrees, make a significant contribution to the hump formation. The fraction of orbits trapped into libration among orbits lying both inside and outside the Outer Lindblad Resonance (OLR) is 28%. The median period P of long-term variations in the angular momentum and total energy of stars increases as Jacobi energy approaches the values typical for the OLR but then sharply drops. The distribution of model stars over the period P has two maxima located at P=0.6 and 1.9 Gyr. Stars with orbits lying both inside and outside the corotation radius (CR) concentrate to the first maximum. The distribution of stars whose orbits lie both inside and outside the OLR depends on their orientation. The fact that the observed profile of the VR-velocity distribution derived from the Gaia DR3 data does not show a hump suggests that the age of the Galactic bar, counted from the moment of reaching its full power, must lie near one of two values: 2.0 +/- 0.3 or 4.0 +/- 0.5 Gyr.