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Adrian M. Price-Whelan

Publications and source records attributed to Adrian M. Price-Whelan.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Stream Fanning and Bifurcations: Observable Signatures of Resonances in Stellar Stream Morphology

Recent observations have revealed a trove of unexpected morphological features in many of the Milky Way's stellar streams. Explanations for such features include time-dependent deformations of the Galactic gravitational potential, local disruptions induced by dark matter substructure, and special configurations of the streams' progenitors. In this paper, we study how these morphologies can also arise in certain static, non-spherical gravitational potentials that host a subset of resonantly-trapped orbit families. The transitions, or separatrices, between these orbit families mark abrupt discontinuities in the orbital structure of the potential. We develop a novel numerical approach for measuring the libration frequencies of resonant and near-resonant orbits, and apply it to study the evolution of stellar streams on these orbits. We reveal two distinct morphological features that arise in streams on near-resonant orbits: fans, that come about due to a large spread in the libration frequencies near a separatrix; and bifurcations, that arise when a separatrix splits the orbital distribution of the stellar stream between two (or more) distinct orbit families. We demonstrate that these effects can arise in some Milky Way streams for certain choices of the dark matter halo potential, and discuss how this might be used to probe and constrain the global shape of the Milky Way's gravitational potential.

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Mapping Dark Matter with Extragalactic Stellar Streams: the Case of Centaurus A

In the coming decade, thousands of stellar streams will be observed in the halos of external galaxies. What fundamental discoveries will we make about dark matter from these streams? As a first attempt to look at these questions, we model Magellan/Megacam imaging of the Centaurus A's (Cen A) disrupting dwarf companion Dwarf 3 (Dw3) and its associated stellar stream, to find out what can be learned about the Cen A dark-matter halo. We develop a novel external galaxy stream-fitting technique and generate model stellar streams that reproduce the stream morphology visible in the imaging. We find that there are many viable stream models that fit the data well, with reasonable parameters, provided that Cen A has a halo mass larger than M$_{200}$ $>4.70\times 10^{12}$ M$_{\odot}$. There is a second stream in Cen A's halo that is also reproduced within the context of this same dynamical model. However, stream morphology in the imaging alone does not uniquely determine the mass or mass distribution for the Cen A halo. In particular, the stream models with high likelihood show covariances between the inferred Cen A mass distribution, the inferred Dw3 progenitor mass, the Dw3 velocity, and the Dw3 line-of-sight position. We show that these degeneracies can be broken with radial-velocity measurements along the stream, and that a single radial velocity measurement puts a substantial lower limit on the halo mass. These results suggest that targeted radial-velocity measurements will be critical if we want to learn about dark matter from extragalactic stellar streams.

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The Poor Old Heart of the Milky Way

Massive disk galaxies like our Milky Way should host an ancient, metal-poor, and centrally concentrated stellar population. This population reflects the star formation and enrichment in the few most massive progenitor components that coalesced at high redshift to form the proto-Galaxy. While metal-poor stars are known to reside in the inner few kiloparsecs of our Galaxy, current data do not yet provide a comprehensive picture of such a metal-poor "heart" of the Milky Way. We use information from Gaia DR3, especially the XP spectra, to construct a sample of 2 million bright (BP $<15.5$ mag) giant stars within $30^\circ$ of the Galactic Center with robust [M/H] estimates, $δ$ [M/H] $\lesssim 0.1$. For most sample members we can calculate orbits based on Gaia RVS velocities and astrometry. This sample reveals an extensive, ancient, and metal-poor population that includes $\sim 18,000$ stars with $-2.7<$ [M/H] $<-1.5$, representing a stellar mass of $\gtrsim 5\times 10^7$ M$_\odot$. The spatial distribution of these [M/H] $<-1.5$ stars has a Gaussian extent of only $σ_{\mathrm{R_{GC}}} \sim 2.7$ kpc around the Galactic center, with most of these orbits being confined to the inner Galaxy. At high orbital eccentricities, there is clear evidence for accreted halo stars in their pericentral orbit phase. Stars with [M/H] $< -2$ show no net rotation, whereas those with [M/H] $\sim -1$ are rotation dominated. Most of the tightly bound stars show $[α/\text{Fe}]$-enhancement and [Al/Fe]-[Mn/Fe] abundance patterns expected for an origin in the more massive portions of the proto-Galaxy. These central, metal-poor stars most likely predate the oldest part of the disk ($τ_{\text{age}}\approx 12.5$ Gyrs), which implies that they formed at $z\gtrsim 5$, forging the proto-Milky Way.

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The impact of a massive Sagittarius dSph on GD-1-like streams

We investigate the effects of a massive ($\gtrsim4\times10^{10}M_\odot$) Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr) on stellar streams using test particle simulations in a realistic Milky Way potential. We find that Sgr can easily disrupt streams formed more than $\sim3$ Gyr ago, while stars stripped more recently are generally unaffected. In certain realizations, Sgr is able to produce asymmetry between the leading and trailing tails of Pal 5, qualitatively similar to observations. Using data from the Gaia space telescope and elsewhere, we fit models to the GD-1 stream in the presence of a Sgr with various initial masses. While the best-fitting models do show perturbations resulting from interactions with Sgr, we find that the level of disruption is not significantly greater than in the observed stream. To investigate the general effects of Sgr on a population of streams, we generate 1000 mock streams on GD-1-like orbits with randomized orientations. Some streams show clear evidence of disruption, becoming folded on the sky or developing asymmetry betweeen their two tails. However, many survive unaffected and the peak surface brightness of stars is decreased by no more than $\sim0.3$ mag/arcsec$^2$ on average. We conclude that Sgr having an initial mass of $\gtrsim4\times10^{10}M_\odot$ is compatible with the survival and detection of streams formed more than 3 Gyr ago.

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White dwarf binaries Across the H-R Diagram

We created the APOGEE-GALEX-\emph{Gaia} catalog to study white dwarfs binaries. This database aims to create a minimally biased sample of WD binary systems identified from a combination of GALEX, {\it Gaia}, and APOGEE data to increase the number of WD binaries with orbital parameters and chemical compositions. We identify 3,414 sources as WD binary candidates, with nondegenerate companions of spectral types between F and M, including main sequence, main sequence binaries, subgiants, sub-subgiants, red giants, and red clump stars. Among our findings are (a) a total of 1,806 systems having inferred WD radii $R < 25$ R$_{\Earth}$, which constitute a more reliable group of WD binary candidates within the main sample; (b) a difference in the metallicity distribution function between WD binary candidates and the control sample of most luminous giants ($M_H < -3.0$); (c) the existence of a population of sub-subgiants with WD companions; (d) evidence for shorter periods in binaries that contain WDs compared to those that do not, as shown by the cumulative distributions of APOGEE radial velocity shifts; (e) evidence for systemic orbital evolution in a sample of 252 WD binaries with orbital periods, based on differences in the period distribution between systems with red clump, main sequence binary, and sub-subgiant companions and systems with main sequence or red giant companions; and (f) evidence for chemical enrichment during common envelope (CE) evolution, shown by lower metallicities in wide WD binary candidates ($P > 100$ days) compared to post-CE ($P < 100$ days) WD binary candidates.

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Multiple phase spirals suggest multiple origins in Gaia DR3

{\it Gaia} Data Release 2 (DR2) revealed that the Milky Way contains significant indications of departures from equilibrium in the form of asymmetric features in the phase space density of stars in the Solar neighborhood. One such feature is the $z$--$v_z$ phase spiral, interpreted as the response of the disk to the influence of a perturbation perpendicular to the disk plane, which could be external (e.g., a satellite) or internal (e.g., the bar or spiral arms). In this work we use {\it Gaia} DR3 to dissect the phase spiral by dividing the local data set into groups with similar azimuthal actions, $J_ϕ$, and conjugate angles, $θ_ϕ$, which selects stars on similar orbits and at similar orbital phases, thus having experienced similar perturbations in the past. These divisions allow us to explore areas of the Galactic disk larger than the surveyed region. The separation improves the clarity of the $z$--$v_z$ phase spiral and exposes changes to its morphology across the different action-angle groups. In particular, we discover a transition to two armed `breathing spirals' in the inner Milky Way. We conclude that the local data contains signatures of not one, but multiple perturbations with the prospect to use their distinct properties to infer the properties of the interactions that caused them.

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The Astropy Project: Sustaining and Growing a Community-oriented Open-source Project and the Latest Major Release (v5.0) of the Core Package

The Astropy Project supports and fosters the development of open-source and openly-developed Python packages that provide commonly needed functionality to the astronomical community. A key element of the Astropy Project is the core package $\texttt{astropy}$, which serves as the foundation for more specialized projects and packages. In this article, we summarize key features in the core package as of the recent major release, version 5.0, and provide major updates for the Project. We then discuss supporting a broader ecosystem of interoperable packages, including connections with several astronomical observatories and missions. We also revisit the future outlook of the Astropy Project and the current status of Learn Astropy. We conclude by raising and discussing the current and future challenges facing the Project.

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The Open Cluster Chemical Abundances and Mapping Survey: VI. Galactic Chemical Gradient Analysis from APOGEE DR17

The goal of the Open Cluster Chemical Abundances and Mapping (OCCAM) survey is to constrain key Galactic dynamic and chemical evolution parameters by the construction and analysis of a large, comprehensive, uniform data set of infrared spectra for stars in hundreds of open clusters. This sixth contribution from the OCCAM survey presents analysis of SDSS/APOGEE Data Release 17 (DR17) results for a sample of stars in 150 open clusters, 94 of which we designate to be "high quality'' based on the appearance of their color-magnitude diagram. We find the APOGEE DR17-derived [Fe/H] values to be in good agreement with those from previous high resolution spectroscopic open cluster abundance studies. Using a subset of the high quality sample, the Galactic abundance gradients were measured for 16 chemical elements, including [Fe/H], for both Galactocentric radius ($R_{GC}$) and guiding center radius ($R_{Guide}$). We find an overall Galactic [Fe/H] vs $R_{GC}$ gradient of $-0.073 \pm 0.002$ dex/kpc over the range of $6 < R_{GC} < 11.5$ kpc, and a similar gradient is found for [Fe/H] versus $R_{Guide}$. Significant Galactic abundance gradients are also noted for O, Mg, S, Ca, Mn, Na, Al, K and Ce. Our large sample additionally allows us to explore the evolution of the gradients in four age bins for the remaining 15 elements.

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On the Hunt for the Origins of the Orphan--Chenab Stream: Detailed Element Abundances with APOGEE and Gaia

Stellar streams in the Galactic halo are useful probes of the assembly of galaxies like the Milky Way. Many tidal stellar streams that have been found in recent years are accompanied by a known progenitor globular cluster or dwarf galaxy. However, the Orphan--Chenab (OC) stream is one case where a relatively narrow stream of stars has been found without a known progenitor. In an effort to find the parent of the OC stream, we use astrometry from the early third data release of ESA's Gaia mission (Gaia EDR3) and radial velocity information from the SDSS-IV APOGEE survey to find up to 13 stars that are likely members of the OC stream. We use the APOGEE survey to study the chemical nature (for up to 13 stars) of the OC stream in the $α$ (O, Mg, Ca, Si, Ti, S), odd-Z (Al, K, V), Fe-peak (Fe, Ni, Mn, Co, Cr) and neutron capture (Ce) elemental groups. We find that the stars that make up the OC stream are not consistent with a mono-metallic population and have a median metallicity of --1.92~dex with a dispersion of 0.28 dex. Our results also indicate that the $α$-elements are depleted compared to the known Milky Way populations and that its [Mg/Al] abundance ratio is not consistent with second generation stars from globular clusters. The detailed chemical pattern of these stars indicates that the OC stream progenitor is very likely to be a dwarf spheroidal galaxy with a mass of ~10$^6$ M$_\odot$.

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The 3D Galactocentric velocities of Kepler stars: marginalizing over missing RVs

Precise Gaia measurements of positions, parallaxes, and proper motions provide an opportunity to calculate 3D positions and 2D velocities (i.e. 5D phase-space) of Milky Way stars. Where available, spectroscopic radial velocity (RV) measurements provide full 6D phase-space information, however there are now and will remain many stars without RV measurements. Without an RV it is not possible to directly calculate 3D stellar velocities, however one can infer 3D stellar velocities by marginalizing over the missing RV dimension. In this paper, we infer the 3D velocities of stars in the Kepler field in Cartesian Galactocentric coordinates (vx, vy, vz). We directly calculate velocities for around a quarter of all Kepler targets, using RV measurements available from the Gaia, LAMOST and APOGEE spectroscopic surveys. Using the velocity distributions of these stars as our prior, we infer velocities for the remaining three-quarters of the sample by marginalizing over the RV dimension. The median uncertainties on our inferred vx, vy, and vz velocities are around 4, 18, and 4 km/s, respectively. We provide 3D velocities for a total of 148,590 stars in the Kepler field. These 3D velocities could enable kinematic age-dating, Milky Way stellar population studies, and other scientific studies using the benchmark sample of well-studied Kepler stars. Although the methodology used here is broadly applicable to targets across the sky, our prior is specifically constructed from and for the Kepler field. Care should be taken to use a suitable prior when extending this method to other parts of the Galaxy.

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Unicorns and Giraffes in the binary zoo: stripped giants with subgiant companions

We analyze two binary systems containing giant stars, V723 Mon ("the Unicorn") and 2M04123153+6738486 ("the Giraffe"). Both giants orbit more massive but less luminous companions, previously proposed to be mass-gap black holes. Spectral disentangling reveals luminous companions with star-like spectra in both systems. Joint modeling of the spectra, light curves, and spectral energy distributions robustly constrains the masses, temperatures, and radii of both components: the primaries are luminous, cool giants ($T_{\rm eff,\,giant} = 3,800\,\rm K$ and $4,000\,\rm K$, $R_{\rm giant}= 22.5\,R_{\odot}$ and $25\,R_{\odot}$) with exceptionally low masses ($M_{\rm giant} \approx 0.4\,M_{\odot}$) that likely fill their Roche lobes. The secondaries are only slightly warmer subgiants ($T_{\rm eff,\,2} = 5,800\,\rm K$ and $5,150\,\rm K$, $R_2= 8.3\,R_{\odot}$ and $9\,R_{\odot}$) and thus are consistent with observed UV limits that would rule out main-sequence stars with similar masses ($M_2 \approx 2.8\,M_{\odot}$ and $\approx 1.8\,M_{\odot}$). In the Unicorn, rapid rotation blurs the spectral lines of the subgiant, making it challenging to detect even at wavelengths where it dominates the total light. Both giants have surface abundances indicative of CNO processing and subsequent envelope stripping. The properties of both systems can be reproduced by binary evolution models in which a $1-2\,M_{\odot}$ primary is stripped by a companion as it ascends the giant branch. The fact that the companions are also evolved implies either that the initial mass ratio was very near unity, or that the companions are temporarily inflated due to rapid accretion. The Unicorn and Giraffe offer a window into into a rarely-observed phase of binary evolution preceding the formation of wide-orbit helium white dwarfs, and eventually, compact binaries containing two helium white dwarfs.

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Stellar Abundance Maps of the Milky Way Disk

To understand the formation of the Milky Way's prominent bar it is important to know whether stars in the bar differ in the chemical element composition of their birth material as compared to disk stars. This requires stellar abundance measurements for large samples across the Milky Way's body. Such samples, e.g. luminous red giant stars observed by SDSS's Apogee survey, will inevitably span a range of stellar parameters; as a consequence, both modelling imperfections and stellar evolution may preclude consistent and precise estimates of their chemical composition at a level of purported bar signatures, which has left current analyses of a chemically distinct bar inconclusive. Here, we develop a new self-calibration approach to eliminate both modelling and astrophysical abundance systematics among red giant branch (RGB) stars of different luminosities (and hence surface gravity $\log g$). We apply our method to $48,853$ luminous Apogee DR16 RGB stars to construct spatial abundance maps of $20$ chemical elements near the Milky Way's mid-plane, covering Galactocentric radii of $0\,{\rm kpc}<R_{\rm GC}<20\,\rm kpc$. Our results indicate that there are no abundance variations whose geometry matches that of the bar, and that the mean abundance gradients vary smoothly and monotonically with Galactocentric radius. We confirm that the high-$α$ disk is chemically homogeneous, without spatial gradients. Furthermore, we present the most precise [Fe/H] vs. $R_{\rm GC}$ gradient to date with a slope of $-0.057\pm0.001\rm~dex\,kpc^{-1}$ out to approximately $15$ kpc.

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The homogeneity of the star forming environment of the Milky Way disk over time

Stellar abundances and ages afford the means to link chemical enrichment to galactic formation. In the Milky Way, individual element abundances show tight correlations with age, which vary in slope across ([Fe/H]-[$α$/Fe]). Here, we step from characterising abundances as measures of age, to understanding how abundances trace properties of stellar birth-environment in the disk over time. Using measurements from $\sim$27,000 APOGEE stars (R=22,500, SNR$>$200), we build simple local linear models to predict a sample of elements (X = Si, O, Ca, Ti, Ni, Al, Mn, Cr) using (Fe, Mg) abundances alone, as fiducial tracers of supernovae production channels. Given [Fe/H] and [Mg/H], we predict these elements, [X/H], to about double the uncertainty of their measurements. The intrinsic dispersion, after subtracting measurement errors in quadrature is $\approx 0.015-0.04$~dex. The residuals of the prediction (measurement $-$ model) for each element demonstrate that each element has an individual link to birth properties at fixed (Fe, Mg). Residuals from primarily massive-star supernovae (i.e. Si, O, Al) partially correlate with guiding radius. Residuals from primarily supernovae Ia (i.e. Mn, Ni) partially correlate with age. A fraction of the intrinsic scatter that persists at fixed (Fe, Mg), however, after accounting for correlations, does not appear to further discriminate between birth properties that can be traced with present-day measurements. Presumably, this is because the residuals are also, in part, a measure of the typical (in)-homogeneity of the disk's stellar birth environments, previously inferred only using open-cluster systems. Our study implies at fixed birth radius and time, there is a median scatter of $\approx 0.01-0.015$ dex in elements generated in supernovae sources.

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Age-Dating Red Giant Stars Associated with Galactic Disk and Halo Substructures

The vast majority of Milky Way stellar halo stars were likely accreted from a small number ($\lesssim$3) of relatively large dwarf galaxy accretion events. However, the timing of these events is poorly constrained, relying predominantly on indirect dynamical mixing arguments or imprecise age measurements of stars associated with debris structures. Here, we aim to infer robust stellar ages for stars associated with galactic substructures to more directly constrain the merger history of the Galaxy. By combining kinematic, asteroseismic, and spectroscopic data where available, we infer stellar ages for a sample of 10 red giant stars that were kinematically selected to be associated with the stellar halo, a subset of which are associated with the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage halo substructure, and compare their ages to 3 red giant stars in the Galactic disk. Despite systematic differences in both absolute and relative ages determined by this work, age rankings of stars in this sample are robust. Passing the same observable inputs to multiple stellar age determination packages, we measure a weighted average age for the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage stars in our sample of 8 $\pm$ 3 (stat.) $\pm$ 1 (sys.) Gyr. We also determine hierarchical ages for the populations of Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage, in situ halo and disk stars, finding a Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage population age of 8.0$^{+3.2}_{-2.3}$ Gyr. Although we cannot distinguish hierarchical population ages of halo or disk structures with our limited data and sample of stars, this framework should allow distinct characterization of Galactic substructures using larger stellar samples and additional data available in the near future.

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The Clustering of Orbital Poles Induced by the LMC: Hints for the Origin of Planes of Satellites

A significant fraction of Milky Way (MW) satellites exhibit phase-space properties consistent with a coherent orbital plane. Using tailored N--body simulations of a spherical MW halo that recently captured a massive (1.8$\times 10^{11}$M$\odot$) LMC-like satellite, we identify the physical mechanisms that may enhance the clustering of orbital poles of objects orbiting the MW. The LMC deviates the orbital poles of MW dark matter (DM) particles from the present-day random distribution. Instead, the orbital poles of particles beyond $R\approx 50$kpc cluster near the present-day orbital pole of the LMC along a sinusoidal pattern across the sky. The density of orbital poles is enhanced near the LMC by a factor $δρ_{max}$=30\%(50\%) with respect to underdense regions, and $δρ_{iso}$=15\%(30\%) relative to the isolated MW simulation (no LMC) between 50-150 kpc (150-300 kpc). The clustering appears after the LMC's pericenter ($\approx$ 50 Myr ago, 49 kpc) and lasts for at least 1 Gyr. Clustering occurs because of three effects: 1) the LMC shifts the velocity and position of the central density of the MW's halo and disk; 2) the DM dynamical friction wake and collective response induced by the LMC changes the kinematics of particles; 3) observations of particles selected within spatial planes suffer from a bias, such that measuring orbital poles in a great circle in the sky enhances the probability of their orbital poles being clustered. This scenario should be ubiquitous in hosts that recently captured a massive satellite (at least $\approx$ 1:10 mass ratio), causing the clustering of orbital poles of halo tracers.

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Double-lined spectroscopic binaries in the APOGEE DR16 and DR17 data

APOGEE spectra offer $\lesssim$1 km s$^{-1}$ precision in the measurement of stellar radial velocities (RVs). This holds even when multiple stars are captured in the same spectrum, as happens most commonly with double-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s), although random line of sight alignments of unrelated stars can also occur. We develop a code that autonomously identifies SB2s and higher order multiples in the APOGEE spectra, resulting in 7273 candidate SB2s, 813 SB3s, and 19 SB4s. We estimate the mass ratios of binaries, and for a subset of these systems with sufficient number of measurements we perform a complete orbital fit, confirming that most systems with period $<$10 days have circularized. Overall, we find a SB2 fraction ($F_{SB2}$) $\sim$3\% among main sequence dwarfs, and that there is not a significant trend in $F_{SB2}$ with temperature of a star. We are also able to recover a higher $F_{SB2}$ in sources with lower metallicity, however there are some observational biases. We also examine light curves from TESS to determine which of these spectroscopic binaries are also eclipsing. Such systems, particularly those that are also pre- and post-main sequence, are good candidates for a follow-up analysis to determine their masses and temperatures.

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Snails Across Scales: Local and Global Phase-Mixing Structures as Probes of the Past and Future Milky Way

Signatures of vertical disequilibrium have been observed across the Milky Way's disk. These signatures manifest locally as unmixed phase-spirals in $z$--$v_z$ space ("snails-in-phase") and globally as nonzero mean $z$ and $v_z$ which wraps around as a physical spiral across the $x$--$y$ plane ("snails-in-space"). We explore the connection between these local and global spirals through the example of a satellite perturbing a test-particle Milky Way (MW)-like disk. We anticipate our results to broadly apply to any vertical perturbation. Using a $z$--$v_z$ asymmetry metric we demonstrate that in test-particle simulations: (a) multiple local phase-spiral morphologies appear when stars are binned by azimuthal action $J_ϕ$, excited by a single event (in our case, a satellite disk-crossing); (b) these distinct phase-spirals are traced back to distinct disk locations; and (c) they are excited at distinct times. Thus, local phase-spirals offer a global view of the MW's perturbation history from multiple perspectives. Using a toy model for a Sagittarius (Sgr)-like satellite crossing the disk, we show that the full interaction takes place on timescales comparable to orbital periods of disk stars within $R \lesssim 10$ kpc. Hence such perturbations have widespread influence which peaks in distinct regions of the disk at different times. This leads us to examine the ongoing MW-Sgr interaction. While Sgr has not yet crossed the disk (currently, $z_{Sgr} \approx -6$ kpc, $v_{z,Sgr} \approx 210$ km/s), we demonstrate that the peak of the impact has already passed. Sgr's pull over the past 150 Myr creates a global $v_z$ signature with amplitude $\propto M_{Sgr}$, which might be detectable in future spectroscopic surveys.

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exoplanet: Gradient-based probabilistic inference for exoplanet data & other astronomical time series

"exoplanet" is a toolkit for probabilistic modeling of astronomical time series data, with a focus on observations of exoplanets, using PyMC3 (Salvatier et al., 2016). PyMC3 is a flexible and high-performance model-building language and inference engine that scales well to problems with a large number of parameters. "exoplanet" extends PyMC3's modeling language to support many of the custom functions and probability distributions required when fitting exoplanet datasets or other astronomical time series. While it has been used for other applications, such as the study of stellar variability, the primary purpose of "exoplanet" is the characterization of exoplanets or multiple star systems using time-series photometry, astrometry, and/or radial velocity. In particular, the typical use case would be to use one or more of these datasets to place constraints on the physical and orbital parameters of the system, such as planet mass or orbital period, while simultaneously taking into account the effects of stellar variability.

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