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arXiv · 1508.04429

Vertical kinematics of the thick disc at 4.5 < R < 9.5 kpc

Kohei Hattori·Gerard Gilmore
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Abstract

We explored a method to reconstruct the distribution function of the Galactic thick disc within the action space where nearby thick-disc stars are distributed. By applying this method to 127 chemically-selected thick-disc stars in the Solar neighbourhood, we found that the vertical velocity dispersion that corresponds to the reconstructed distribution function declines approximately as $\exp (-R/R_s)$ at 4.5 kpc < R < 9.5 kpc, with $R_s$ = 8.3 $\pm$ 1.1 (rand.) $\pm$ 1.6 (sys.) kpc. Also, we found that the vertical velocity dispersion $σ_z$ of our local thick-disc stars shows only weak dependency on radial and azimuthal velocities $(v_R, v_ϕ)$. We discuss possible implications of these results on the global structure of the Milky Way thick disc.

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Kohei Hattori, Gerard Gilmore. 2015-08-18. Vertical kinematics of the thick disc at 4.5 < R < 9.5 kpc. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstv1895

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