The distribution of nearby stars in phase space mapped by Hipparcos: I. The potential well and local dynamical mass

TL;DR

This study uses Hipparcos data to map stellar density and velocity distributions in the solar neighborhood, accurately determining the local dynamical density and constraining dark matter presence.

Contribution

It provides a volume-limited, model-free measurement of the local potential well and stellar density using Hipparcos data, refining previous dark matter estimates.

Findings

Local dynamical density is 0.076 ± 0.015 M_sun/pc^3

Potential well mapped without assumptions

No evidence for significant disk dark matter component

Abstract

Hipparcos data provide the first, volume limited and absolute magnitude limited homogeneous tracer of stellar density and velocity distributions in the solar neighbourhood. The density of A-type stars more luminous than $M_v=2.5$ can be accurately mapped within a sphere of 125 pc radius, while proper motions in galactic latitude provide the vertical velocity distribution near the galactic plane. The potential well across the galactic plane is traced practically hypothesis-free and model-free. The local dynamical density comes out as $\rho_{0}=0.076 \pm0.015~M_{\sun}~{pc}^{-3}$ a value well below all previous determinations leaving no room for any disk shaped component of dark matter.