arXiv subjects

H. -F. Wang

Publications and source records attributed to H. -F. Wang.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

SHARP -- A spectrograph proposal to fully exploit ELT capabilities and look beyond JWST

The Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs), with their large apertures and cutting-edge Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) systems, promise to deliver data that is both sharper and deeper than even the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) across large fields. SHARP is a concept study for a near-IR (0.95-2.45 $μ$m) spectrograph specifically designed to fully exploit the collecting area and angular resolution capabilities of the upcoming ESO's ELT. The instrument concept is driven by the goal of tackling the most important questions in astrophysics and cosmology, from exploring primordial galaxies to studying the formation of young stellar object and planetary systems in the nearby dust-enshrouded regions, bridging the gap between the local and the distant Universe. This requires versatility to accommodate diverse observational needs. SHARP is composed of two main units: NEXUS, a Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) optimized for detecting the faintest sources, and VESPER, a multi-object Integral Field Unit (multi-IFU) designed for brighter ones. This article provides an overview of the scientific design drivers, the solutions developed to meet them, and the resulting optical design that achieves the required performance.

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arXiv2026

Revisiting the Milky Way stellar long bar and the 3 kpc arm

CONTEXT. One of the most difficult and unexplored regions of the Milky Way is the highly extincted in-plane central region within the Galactic coordinates $10^\circ \lesssim |\ell |\lesssim 30^\circ $, $|b|\lesssim 3^\circ $, where we have the long-bar and 3 kpc arm with intermediate-age stellar population, whose morphological properties are still unclear. AIMS. We aim to advance our knowledge of the morphology of these two components. METHODS. We examined star counts of bright M giants in WISE-4.6$μ$m and its distribution of distances derived from spectroscopic parallaxes with APOGEE-DR17. We also examined the distribution of distances of young OGLE-O-rich Mira variable stars, and reviewed the literature on red clump distance determination within that area. RESULTS. We corroborate the asymmetry between positive and negative longitudes in in-plane regions, thus confirming the necessity to include a long bar. We obtain an average angle between the major axis of the long bar and the line Sun-Galactic centre of $α=27.4^\circ \pm 1.5^\circ $, aligned with the triaxial bulge and a semi-major-axis length $\approx 4$ kpc. The tips of the long bar are in contact with the elliptical 3 kpc arm, with the major axis again aligned with the bulge and the long bar's major axes, whose tangential lines of sight correspond to $\ell =-22^\circ $ and $\ell=+27^\circ $. In the range of 50 degrees in the sky between these two longitudes, the stellar near 3 kpc arm is clearly detected at heliocentric distances around 5 kpc, and the stellar far 3 kpc arm is tentatively detected at heliocentric distances of 9-12 kpc.

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arXiv2025

SHARP: Beyond JWST -- Revealing the galaxy birth and growth with the resolution of the ELT

A deep understanding of the life-cycle of galaxies, particularly those of high mass, requires clarifying the mechanisms that regulate star formation (SF) and its abrupt shutdown (quenching), often capable of stopping SF rates of hundreds of solar masses per year. What initially triggers quenching, and what sustains the quiescent state thereafter, especially given the frequent presence of large gas reservoirs or even massive gas inflows, are unsolved key issues. Ultimately, the crucial connection between the galaxy life-cycle and the surrounding Intergalactic (IGM) and Circumgalactic (CGM) Medium remains largely unclear. Addressing these issues requires studying star formation, chemical enrichment, and quenching homogeneously up to high redshift. The upcoming AO-assisted Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), will deliver sharper and deeper data than the JWST. SHARP is a concept study for a near-IR (0.95-2.45 mu) spectrograph designed to fully exploit the capabilities of ELT. Designed for multi-object slit spectroscopy and multi-Integral Field spectroscopy, SHARP points to achieve angular resolutions (~30 mas) far superior to NIRSpec at JWST(100 mas) to decipher and reconstruct the life-cycle oa galaxies.

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arXiv2025

Milky Way disc & Bulge in situ populations: ESO white paper - Expanding horizons call

The formation and evolution of the Milky Way's disc, bar, and bulge remain fundamentally limited by the lack of a contiguous, Galaxy-wide, high-precision chemo-dynamical map. Key open questions - including the survival or destruction of the primitive discs, the origin of the bulge's multi-component structure, the role of mergers and secular processes, and the coupling between stellar chemistry, dynamics, and the Galactic potential - cannot be fully resolved with current or planned facilities. Existing spectroscopic surveys provide either high resolution for small samples or wide coverage at insufficient resolution and depth, and none can obtain homogeneous abundances, precise 3D kinematics, and reliable ages for the millions of stars required, particularly in the obscured midplane, the far side of the bar, or the outer, low-density disc. A new wide-field, massively multiplexed, large-aperture spectroscopic facility, capable of both high- and low-resolution spectroscopy over tens of thousands of square degrees, is therefore essential. Such a facility would deliver the statistical power, sensitivity, and completeness needed to reconstruct the Galaxy's assembly history, constrain its gravitational potential, and establish the Milky Way as the definitive benchmark for galaxy evolution.

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arXiv2024

Stellar halo density with LAMOST K and M giants

AIMS. We derive the morphology of the stellar component in the outer halo volume, and search for possible overdensities due to substructures therein. METHODS. We made use of some of the data releases of the spectroscopic survey LAMOST DR8-DR9 in tandem with distance determinations for two subsamples, that is, of K-giants and M-giants, respectively, making up 60,000 stars. These distance are obtained through Bayesian techniques that derive absolute magnitudes as a function of measured spectroscopic parameters. Our calculation of the density from these catalogues requires: (1) derivation of the selection function; and (2) a correction for the convolution of the distance errors, which we carried out with Lucy's inversion of the corresponding integral equation. RESULTS. The stellar density distribution of the outer halo (distance to the Galactic centre, $r_G$, of between 25 and 90 kpc) is a smooth monotonously decreasing function with a dependence of approximately $ρ\propto r_G^{-n}$, with $n=4.6\pm 0.4$ for K-giants and $n=4.5\pm 0.2$ for M-giants, and with a insignificant oblateness. The value of $n$ is independent of the angular distance to the Sagittarius tidal stream plane, which is what would be expected if such a stream did not exist in the anticenter positions or had a negligible imprint in the density distribution in the outer halo. Apart from random fluctuations or minor anomalies in some lines of sight, we do not see substructures superimposed in the outer halo volume within the resolution that we are using and limited by the error bars. This constrains the mass of over- and under-densities in the outer halo to be of $\lesssim 10^3$ M$_\odot $/deg$^2$, whereas the total mass of the stellar halo, including inner and outer parts, is $\sim 7\times 10^8$ M$_\odot $.

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arXiv2021

Local Stellar Kinematics and Oort Constants from the LAMOST A-type Stars

We estimate the solar peculiar velocities and Oort constants using a sample of 5,627 A-type stars with $d<0.6\,\rm kpc$ and $|z|<0.1\,\rm kpc$, selected from the LAMOST surveys. The radial and tangential velocities of these A-type stars are fitted by using a non-axisymmetric model. The best-fitting result yields the solar peculiar velocities $(U_\odot,V_\odot,W_\odot)=(11.69\pm0.68, 10.16\pm0.51, 7.67\pm0.10)\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$ and Oort constants $A=16.31\pm0.89\,\rm km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$, $B=-11.99\pm0.79\,\rm km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$, $C=-3.10\pm0.48\,\rm km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$, $K=-1.25\pm1.04\,\rm km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$, respectively. $|K+C|>4\,\rm km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$ means that there is a radial velocity gradient in the extended local disk, implying the local disk is in a non-asymmetric potential. Using the derived Oort constants, we derive the local angular velocity $Ω\,{\approx}\,A-B=28.30\pm1.19\,\rm km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}$. By using A-type star sample of different volumes, we further try to evaluate the impacts of the ridge pattern in $R$-$V_ϕ$ plane on constraining the solar motions and Oort constants. As the volume becomes larger toward the anti-center direction, the values of $A$ and $B$ become larger (implying a steeper slope of the local rotation curve) and the value of $V_\odot$ becomes smaller probably caused by the ridge structure and its signal increasing with distance.

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arXiv2021

Superflares, chromospheric activities and photometric variabilities of solar-type stars from the second-year observation of TESS and spectra of LAMOST

In this work, 1272 superflares on 311 stars are collected from 22,539 solar-type stars from the second-year observation of Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which almost covered the northern hemisphere of the sky. Three superflare stars contain hot Jupiter candidates or ultrashort-period planet candidates. We obtain $γ= -1.76\pm 0.11$ of the correlation between flare frequency and flare energy ($dN/dE\propto E^{-γ}$) for all superflares and get $β=0.42\pm0.01$ of the correlation between superflare duration and energy ($T_{\text {duration }} \propto E^β$), which supports that a similar mechanism is shared by stellar superflares and solar flares. Stellar photometric variability ($R_{\rm var}$) is estimated for all solar-type stars, and the relation of $E\propto {R_{\rm var}}^{3/2}$ is included. An indicator of chromospheric activity ($S$-index) is obtained by using data from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) for 7454 solar-type stars. Distributions of these two properties indicate that the Sun is generally less active than superflare stars. We find that saturation-like feature of $R_{\rm var}\sim 0.1$ may be the reason for superflare energy saturating around $10^{36}$ erg. Object TIC 93277807 was captured by the TESS first-year mission and generated the most energetic superflare. This superflare is valuable and unique that can be treated as an extreme event, which may be generated by different mechanisms rather than other superflares.

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arXiv2020

Diagonal Ridge pattern of different age populations found in Gaia DR2 with LAMOST Main-Sequence-Turn-Off and OB type Stars

We revisit the diagonal ridge feature (diagonal distributions in the $R, v_ϕ$ plane) found in $Gaia$ and present timing analysis for it between Galactocentric distances of $R=7.5$ and 12 \,kpc, using Main-Sequence-Turn-Off and OB stars selected from the LAMOST Galactic spectroscopic surveys. We recover the ridge pattern in the $R$--$v_ϕ$ plane color coded by mean radial velocity and find this feature is presented from very young (OB stars, few hundred \,Myr) to very old populations ($τ$ = 9$-$14 \,Gyr). Meanwhile, some ridge features are also revealed in the metallicity [Fe/H], [$α$/Fe] and $v_{z}$ distributions. In the $L_{Z}, v_ϕ$ plane, one of the ridge patterns, with constant angular momentum per unit mass, shows variations with different age populations compared. However, the remaining two ones are relatively stable, implying there might have two kinds of ridge patterns with different dynamical origins and evolution.

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arXiv2020

Gaia-DR2 extended kinematical maps. Part III: Rotation curves analysis, dark matter, and Modified Newtonian dynamics tests

Recent statistical deconvolution methods have produced extended kinematical maps in a range of heliocentric distances that are a factor of two to three larger than those analysed in the Gaia Collaboration based on the same data. In this paper, we use such maps to derive the rotation curve both in the Galactic plane and in off-plane regions and to analyse the density distribution. By assuming stationary equilibrium and axisymmetry, we used the Jeans equation to derive the rotation curve. Then we fit it with density models that include both dark matter and predictions of the MOND (Modified Newtonian dynamics) theory. Since the Milky Way exhibits deviations from axisymmetry and equilibrium, we also considered corrections to the Jeans equation. To compute such corrections, we ran N-body experiments of mock disk galaxies where the departure from equilibrium becomes larger as a function of the distance from the centre. The rotation curve in the outer disk of the Milky Way that is constructed with the Jeans equation exhibits very low dependence on $R$ and $z$ and it is well-fitted both by dark matter halo and MOND models. The application of the Jeans equation for deriving the rotation curve, in the case of the systems that deviate from equilibrium and axisymmetry, introduces systematic errors that grow as a function of the amplitude of the average radial velocity. In the case of the Milky Way, we can observe that the amplitude of the radial velocity reaches $\sim 10\%$ that of the azimuthal one at $R\approx 20$ kpc. Based on this condition, using the rotation curve obtained from the Jeans equation to calculate the mass may overestimate its measurement.

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arXiv2020

Mapping the Galactic disk with the LAMOST and Gaia red clump sample: IV: the kinematic signature of the Galactic warp

Using a sample of nearly 140,000 red clump stars selected from the LAMOST and Gaia Galactic surveys, we have mapped mean vertical velocity $\overline{V_{z}}$ in the $X$-$Y$ plane for a large volume of the Galactic disk (6 $< R < 16$ kpc; $-20 <ϕ< 50^{\circ}$; $|Z| < 1$ kpc). A clear signature where $\overline{V_{z}}$ increases with $R$ is detected for the chemically thin disk. The signature for the thick disk is however not significant, in line with the hot nature of this disk component. For the thin disk, the warp signature shows significant variations in both radial and azimuthal directions, in excellent agreement with the previous results of star counts. Fitting the two-dimensional distribution of $\overline{V_{z}}$ with a simple long-lived static warp model yields a line-of-node angle for this kinematic warp of about $12.5^{\circ}$, again consistent with the previous results.

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arXiv2020

Mapping the Galactic disk with the LAMOST and Gaia Red clump sample. VI: An evidence for the long lived non-steady warp of non-gravitational scenarios

By combining LAMOST DR4 and Gaia DR2 common red clump stars with age and proper motion, we analyze the amplitude evolution of the stellar warp independently of any assumption with a simple model. The greatest height of the warp disk increases with Galactocentric distance in different populations and it is dependent on the age: the younger stellar populations exhibit stronger warp features than the old ones, accompanied with the warp amplitude $γ({\rm age})$ decreasing with age and its first derivative $\dotγ ({\rm age})$ is different from zero. The azimuth of line of nodes $ϕ_w$ is stable at $-$5 degree without clear time evolution, which perfectly confirms some of previous works. All these self-consistent evidences support that our Galactic warp should most likely be a long lived, but non-steady structure and not a transient one, which is supporting the warp is originated from gas infall onto the disk or other hypotheses that suppose that the warp mainly affects to the gas, and consequently younger populations tracing the gas are stronger than the older ones. In other words, the Galactic warp is induced by the non-gravitational interaction over the disk models.

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arXiv2020

A large catalogue of molecular clouds with accurate distances within 4 kpc of the Galactic disk

We present a large, homogeneous catalogue of molecular clouds within 4 kpc from the Sun at low Galactic latitudes ($|b|$ $<$ 10\degr) with unprecedented accurate distance determinations. Based on the three-dimensional dust reddening map and estimates of colour excesses and distances of over 32 million stars presented in Chen et al, we have identified 567 dust/molecular clouds with a hierarchical structure identification method and obtained their distance estimates by a dust model fitting algorithm. The typical distance uncertainty is less than 5 per cent. As far as we know, this is the first large catalogue of molecular clouds in the Galactic plane with distances derived in a direct manner. The clouds are seen to lie along the Sagittarius, Local and Perseus Arms. In addition to the known structures, we propose the existence of a possible {\it spur}, with a pitch angle of about 34\degr, connecting the Local and the Sagittarius Arms in the fourth quadrant. We have also derived the physical properties of those molecular clouds. The distribution of cloud properties in different parameter spaces agrees grossly with the previous results. Our cloud sample is an ideal starting point to study the concentration of dust and gas in the solar vicinity and their star formation activities.

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arXiv2020

Gaia-DR2 extended kinematical maps. Part II: Dynamics in the Galactic disk explaining radial and vertical velocities

Context: In our Paper I, by using statistical deconvolution methods, extended kinematics maps of Gaia-DR2 data have been produced in a range of heliocentric distances that are a factor of two to three larger than those analyzed previously by the Gaia Collaboration with the same data. It added the range of Galactocentric distances between 13 kpc and 20 kpc to the previous maps. Aims: Here, we investigate the dynamical effects produced by different mechanisms that can explain the radial and vertical components of these extended kinematic maps, including a decomposition of bending and breathing of the vertical components. This paper as a whole tries to be a compendium of different dynamical mechanisms whose predictions can be compared to the kinematic maps. Methods: Using analytical methods or simulations, we are able to predict the main dynamical factors and compare them to the predictions of the extended kinematic maps of Gaia-DR2. Results: The gravitational influence of Galactic components that are different from the disk, such as the long bar or bulge, the spiral arms, or a tidal interaction with Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, may explain some features of the velocity maps, especially in the inner parts of the disk. However, they are not sufficient in explaining the most conspicuous gradients in the outer disk. Vertical motions might be dominated by external perturbations or mergers, although a minor component may be due to a warp whose amplitude evolves with time. Here, we show with two different methods, which analyze the dispersion of velocities, that the mass distribution of the disk is flared. Despite these partial explanations, the main observed features can only be explained in terms of out-of-equilibrium models, which are either due to external perturbers or to the fact that the disk has not had time to reach equilibrium since its formation.

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arXiv2019

Mapping the Galactic disk with the LAMOST and Gaia Red clump sample. II. 3D asymmetrical kinematics of mono-age populations in the disk between 6$-14$ \,kpc

We perform analysis of the three-dimensional kinematics of Milky Way disk stars in mono-age populations. We focus on stars between Galactocentric distances of $R=6$ and 14 \,kpc, selected from the combined LAMOST DR4 red clump giant stars and Gaia DR2 proper motion catalogue. We confirm the 3D asymmetrical motions of recent works and provide time tagging of the Galactic outer disk asymmetrical motions near the anticenter direction out to Galactocentric distances of 14\,kpc. Radial Galactocentric motions reach values up to 10 km s$^{-1}$, depending on the age of the population, and present a north-south asymmetry in the region corresponding to density and velocity substructures that were sensitive to the perturbations in the early 6 \,Gyr. After that time, the disk stars in this asymmetrical structure have become kinematically hotter, and are thus not sensitive to perturbations, and we find the structure is a relatively younger population. With quantitative analysis, we find stars both above and below the plane at $R\gtrsim 9$ kpc that exhibit bending mode motions of which the sensitive duration is around 8 \,Gyr. We speculate that the in-plane asymmetries might not be mainly caused by a fast rotating bar, intrinsically elliptical outer disk, secular expansion of the disk, or streams. Spiral arm dynamics, out-of-equilibrium models, minor mergers or others are important contributors. Vertical motions might be dominated by bending and breathing modes induced by complicated inner or external perturbers. It is likely that many of these mechanisms are coupled together.

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arXiv2019

Mapping the Galactic disk with the LAMOST and Gaia Red clump sample: III: A new velocity substructure and time stamps of the Galactic disk asymmetry in the disk between 12$-$15 \,kpc

We investigate the three-dimensional asymmetrical kinematics and present time stamps of the Milky Way disk between Galactocentric distances of $R=12$ and 15 \,kpc, using red clump stars selected from the LAMOST Galactic survey, also with proper motion measurements provided by the Gaia DR2. We discover velocity substructure above the Galactic plane corresponding to a density dip found recently ("south-middle opposite" density structure[R $\sim$ 12-15 \,kpc, Z $\sim$ 1.5 \,kpc] discovered in \citet{Wang2018b, Wang2018c}) in the radial and azimuthal velocity. For the vertical velocity, we detect clear vertical bulk motions or bending mode motions, which has no clear north-south asymmetry corresponding to the in-plane asymmetrical features. In the subsample of stars with different ages, we find that there is little temporal evolution of the in-plane asymmetry from 0$-$14 \,Gyr, which means the structure is sensitive to the perturbations in almost cosmic time possibly. We propose that the possible scenario of this asymmetric velocity structure is caused by the mechanisms generated in-plane, rather than vertical perturbations.

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arXiv2019

Milky Way tomography with the SkyMapper Southern Survey: I: Atmospheric parameters and distances of one million red giants

Accurate determinations of atmospheric parameters (effective temperature $T_{\rm eff}$, surface gravity log $g$ and metallicity [Fe/H]) and distances for large complete samples are of vital importance for various Galactic studies. We have developed a photometric method to select red giant stars and estimate their atmospheric parameters from the photometric colors provided by the SkyMapper Southern Survey (SMSS) data release (DR) 1.1, using stars in common with the LAMOST Galactic spectroscopic surveys as a training set. Distances are estimated with two different approaches: one based on the Gaia DR2 parallaxes for nearby ($d \leq 4.5$ kpc) bright stars and another based on the absolute magnitudes predicted by intrinsic color $(g-i)_0$ and photometric metallicity [Fe/H] for distant ($d > 4.5$ kpc) faint stars. Various tests show that our method is capable of delivering atmospheric parameters with a precision of $\sim$80 K for $T_{\rm eff}$, $\sim$0.18 dex for [Fe/H] and $\sim$0.35 dex for log $g$, but with a significant systematic error at log $g \sim$ 2.3. For distances delivered from $(g-i)_0$ and photometric [Fe/H], our test with the member stars of globular clusters show a median uncertainty of 16 per cent with a negligible zero-point offset. Using this method, atmospheric parameters and distances of nearly one million red giant stars are derived from SMSS DR1.1. Proper motion measurements from Gaia DR2 are available for almost all of the red giant stars, and radial velocity measurements from several large spectroscopic surveys are available for 44 per cent of these. This sample will be accessible online at https://yanghuang0.wixsite.com/yangh/research .

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arXiv2019

The Galactic disc phase spirals at different Galactic positions revealed by Gaia and LAMOST data

We have investigated the distributions of stellar azimuthal and radial velocity components $V_Φ$ and $V_{R}$ in the vertical position-velocity plane $Z$-$V_{Z}$ across the Galactic disc of $6.34 \lesssim R \lesssim 12.34$\,kpc and $|Φ| \lesssim 7.5^{\circ}$ using a Gaia and Gaia-LAMOST sample of stars. As found in previous works, the distributions exhibit significant spiral patterns. The $V_{R}$ distributions also show clear quadrupole patterns, which are the consequence of the well-known tilt of the velocity ellipsoid. The observed spiral and quadrupole patterns in the phase space plane vary strongly with radial and azimuthal positions. The phase spirals of $V_Φ$ become more and more relaxed as $R$ increases. The spiral patterns of $V_Φ$ and $V_{R}$ and the quadrupole patterns of $V_{R}$ are strongest at $-2^{\circ} < Φ< 2^{\circ}$ but negligible at $4^{\circ} < Φ< 6^{\circ}$ and $-6^{\circ} < Φ< -4^{\circ}$. Our results suggest an external origin of the phase spirals. In this scenario, the intruder, most likely the previously well-known Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, passed through the Galactic plane in the direction towards either Galactic center or anti-center. The azimuthal variations of the phase spirals also help us constrain the passage duration of the intruder. A detailed model is required to reproduce the observed radial and azimuthal variations of the phase spirals of $V_Φ$ and $V_{R}$.

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