arXiv subjects

Jacques P Vallee

Publications and source records attributed to Jacques P Vallee.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Superposing the Magnetic spiral structure of the Milky Way, on the stellar spiral arms -- Matching the unique galactic magnetic field reversal Zone with two galactic spiral arm Segments

To pinpoint the peak location of the synchrotron total intensity emission in a spiral arm, we use a map of the spiralarm locations (from the observed arm tangent). Thus In a typical spiral arm in Galactic Quadrant I, we find the peak of the synchrotron radiation to be located about 220 +/-40 pc away from the inner arm edge (hot dust lane) inside the spiral arm. While most of the galactic disk has a clockwise largescale magnetic field, we make a statistical analysis to delimitate more precisely the smaller reverse annulus wiith a counterclockwise galactic magnetic field. We find an annulus width of 2.1 +/-0.3 kpc (measured along the Galactic radius), located from 5.5 to 7.6 kpc from the Galactic Center). The annulus does not overlay with a single spiral arm -- it encompasses segments of two different spiral arms. Using a recent delineation of the position of spiral arms, the field-reversed annulus is seen to encompass the Crux-Centaurus arm (in Galactic Quadrant IV) and the Sagittarius arm (in Galactic Quadrant I).

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arXiv2022

Catalog of spiral arm Tangents (Galactic Longitudes) in the Milky Way, and the Age Gradient based on various arm tangents

An updated catalog of 205 observed tangents to the spiral arms (in Galactic longitudes) since 1980 is presented. This represents an addition of 80 arm tangents in 6 years (since 2016). Most arm tangents are observed at telescopes in the radio regime. In this study, the separation of each arm tracer from the dust lane is analyzed to obtain the relative speed away from the dust lane (an age gradient). Each arm tracer is observed to be separated from the dust lane, showing an age gradient of about 11.3 +/- 2 Myr/kpc across the spiral arm; this gives a relative speed away from the dust lane of about 87 +/- 10 km/s.

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arXiv2022

The Observed Age Gradient in the Milky Way -- as a Test for theories of spiral arm structure

Some important predictions from 4 main models of spiral arm formation are tested here, using observational data acquired for the Milky Way galaxy. Many spiral arm models (density wave, tidal wave, nuclear Lyapunov tube, or dynamic transient wave) have some consistencies with some of the observations, and some inconsistencies. Our 4 tests consist of the relative locations and relative speeds of different arm tracers away from the dust lane, and the global arm pitch angle as obtained over two Galactic quadrants and several Galactic radii, as well as the arm's continuity of shape from Galactic quadrant IV to Galactic quadrant I. In the Milky Way, an age gradient is observed from different arm tracers, amounting to 12.9 +/-1.1 Myrs/kpc, or a relative speed away from the dust lane of 76 +/-10 km/s. The presence of an age gradient is predicted by the density waves, but is not consistent with the predictions of the tidal waves, of the nuclear Lyapunov tubes, nor of the dynamic transient recurrent waves.

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arXiv2021

Arm Tangents and the spiral structure of the Milky Way ; the Age Gradient

From the Sun, a look at the edge of each spiral arm in our Milky Way (seen tangentially, along the line of sight) can yield numerous insights. Using different arm tracers (dust, masers, synchrotron emission, CO gas, open star clusters), we observe here for the first time an age gradient (about 12 +/-2 Myrs/kpc), much as predicted by the density wave theory. This implies that the arm tracers are leaving the dust lane at a relative speed of about 81 +/-10 km/s. We then compare with recent optical data obtained from the Gaia satellite, pertaining to the spiral arms.

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arXiv2021

A low density-wave spiral pattern speed, from the tracer separations (age gradient) across a spiral arm in the Milky Way

We observe the density wave angular pattern speed OMEGA-p to be near 12 to 17 km / s / kpc, by the separation between a typical optical HII region (from the spiral arm dust lane) and using a HII evolution time model to yield its relative speed, and independently by the separation between a typical radio maser (from the spiral arm dust lane) with a maser model.

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arXiv2019

Statistics on 24 spiral galaxies having different observed arm locations using different arm tracers

The density wave theory predicted some physical offsets among different tracers of star formation. To test this prediction, here we compiled data on 40 galaxies searched observationally for a physical offset between spiral arm tracers, and found that 24 of them have a positive offset. In a spiral arm, an arm tracer in a region with a given temperature may be at a different location (offset) than an arm tracer in a region with a colder temperature. Some conditions are found to be necessary or sufficient in order to detect an offset between two arm tracers. To find the offset of a tracer from another tracer, one needs a proper linear resolution. Starting in the dust lane and going across the spiral arm, we seek the observed physical width of the star-forming zone (offset). In our sample of 24 galaxies with measured offsets, we find offsets with a median value near 326 pc and a mean near 370 pc. These offsets are comparable to those found in our Milky Way galaxy, between the cold diffuse CO 1-0 gas set at 0 pc, and the hot dust near 350 pc. Preliminary statistics are performed on the angular velocity of the gas and stars and angular velocity of the spiral pattern. Their observed orbital velocity of 200 km/s at a typical galactic radius near 4 kpc yields an angular speed of the gas and stars near 60 km/s/kpc. Their deduced angular rotation for the spiral pattern averages 36 km/s/kpc. These observational results are close to the results predicted by the shock-induced star-forming density wave theory. These mean or median property values will be useful for finding other galaxies that can support density waves.

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arXiv2019

Spatial offsets between interstellar bone-like filaments, radio masers, and cold diffuse CO gas, in the Scutum spiral arm

The advent of more precise measurements of distance estimates for some objects (bayesian estimates for filaments, trigonometric estimates for masers) permits a better comparison of their relative locations, and a comparison with a most recent spiral arm model fitted to the diffuse CO 1-0 gas. Our results support the idea that some bone-like filaments, greater than 10 pc (labeled elsewhere as bones, mst, herschel) and smaller than 100 pc, are observed near the potential minimum of the Scutum spiral arm (bone-like filaments are offset outward from masers by about 200 pc).

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arXiv2019

Spatial and velocity offsets of Galactic masers from the centers of spiral arms

Some galactic theories of spiral arms predict an offset between different tracers of star formation. Our goal here is to find such an offset between the observed location of radio masers and the location of the arms, using a recent 4-arm model fitted to the CO 1-0 gas. Our method here is to compare a recent global 4-arm spiral model (as fitted to the arm tangents in the observed broad CO 1-0 gas) with the recent results for the trigonometric distances of radio masers, for the main arms (Cygnus-Norma, Perseus, Sagittarius-Carina, Scutum, and Norma). Our results indicate that most radio masers are near the inner arm edge (toward the Galactic Center) of spiral arms. These masers are offsets from the model arm (where the broad CO 1-0 molecular region resides) by 0.34 (plus or minus 0.06) kpc inward. In radial velocity space, the median offset between masers and the CO-fitted model is around 10 (plus or minus 1) km/s. Based on the masers being observed here to be radially inward of the broad CO gas in the Cygnus arm at 15 kpc along the Galactic Meridian, the corotation radius of the Milky Way disk is more than 15 kpc distant from the Galactic Centre and the density-wave angular pattern speed is less than 15 km/s/kpc. Arm pitch angle should be measured using many arm tracers, and located on both side of the Galactic Meridian, to ensure better precision and avoid a bias pertinent to a single tracer.

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arXiv2018

Meta-analysis from different tracers of the small Local Arm around the Sun - extent, shape, pitch, origin

The Sun in not located in a major spiral arm, and sits in a small Local Arm (variously called arm, armlet, blob, branch, bridge, feather, finger, segment, spur, sub-arm, swath, etc). The diversity of names for the Local Arm near the Sun indicates an uncertainty about its shape or pitch or its extent from the Sun in each galactic quadrant, as well as an uncertainty about its origin. Here we extract data about the small Local Arm near the Sun, from the recent observational literature, over many arm tracers, and we use statistics in order to find the its mean extent from the Sun, its possible shape and pitch angle from the direction of galactic longitude 90 degrees. Employing all tracers, the Local Arm is about 4 kpc long by 2 kpc large. The Sun is within 1 kpc of the center of the local arm. Proposed bridges and fingers are assessed. These bridges to nearby spiral arms and fingers across spiral arms may not reach the nearest spiral arms, owing to kinematic and photometric distance effects. We then compare these statistical results with some predictions from recent models proposed to explain the local arm (perturbations, resonances, density wave, halo supercloud, debris trail from a dwarf galaxy). The least controversial models involve importing materials from elsewhere (halo supercloud, debris trail) as a first step, and to be later deformed in a second step (by the Galactic differential rotation into become roughly parallel to spiral arms) and then subjected to ongoing forces (global density waves, local perturbations).

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arXiv2018

Offsets of masers with respect to the middle of the Perseus arm, and the co-rotation radius in the Milky Way

The radial distance to the co-rotation radius Rcoro (where the angular speed of the gas and stars in orbit around the Galactic Centre is equal to the angular speed of the spiral arm pattern) has often been predicted (at various places), but not measured with a high precision. Here we test the locations of masers with respect to the Perseus arm (Table 1). Our analysis of the masers and HII regions near the Perseus arm (mostly located on the inner arm side, by about 0.4 kpc from the cold CO mid-arm) shows that the co-rotation Rcoro must be > 10.8 kpc from the Galactic Center (Figure 1). This implies that the angular rotation speed of the spiral pattern < 21.3 km/s/kpc. Another test in galactic quadrant II shows that the radial velocity of the masers are generally more negative than that of the CO mid-arm (Figure 2), indicating a deceleration with respect to the CO mid-arm, by about 9 km/s. This implies that a spiral pattern angular rotation < 20.7 km/s/kpc, and thus Rcoro > 11.1 kpc. Finally, comparing our results with other published results (Table 2), we find a statistical mean co-rotation radius Rcoro predicted to be near 12 kpc from the Galactic Center (beyond the Perseus arm; before the Cygnus arm), and a mean angular spiral pattern angular rotation predicted to be near 19 km/s/kpc.

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arXiv2017

A guided map to the Spiral arms in the galactic disk of the Milky Way

An up-to-date overview of the recent history is given, aiming to present a helpful working guide to the literature and at the same time introduce key systems and observational results, starting from the Sun and going towards the Galactic Center and parts of the Zona Galactica Incognita, and beyond. We start by presenting an observational view of the Milky Way's disk plane (cartographic. dynamical, chemical cross-cut, magnetic). This included the four long spiral arms in the disk of the Milky Way (fig.1), their geometry (fig.2), component, velocity (fig.3), their widths and internal layers as well as onion-like ordered offsets (fig.4), the central galactic bars, arm tangents, arm pitch and arm shape, arm origins near the Galactic Center (fig.5), and other possible players in the spiral arms, such as the magnetic field (fig.6) and the dark matter content. After, we present a basic analysis of some theoretical predictions from galactic arm formation: numerical simulations or analytical theories, and observations are checked against predictions from various numerical simulations and analytical (theoretical) models.

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arXiv2017

Constraining the pitch angle of the Galactic spiral arms in the Milky Way

We carry out analyses of some parameters of the galactic spiral arms, in the currently available samples. We present a catalog of the observed pitch angle for each spiral arm in the Milky Way disk. For each long spiral arm in the Milky Way, we investigate for each individual arm its pitch angle, as measured through different methods (parallaxes, twin-tangent arm, kinematical, etc), and assess their answers. Second, we catalog recent advances in the cartography of the Galaxy (global mean arm pitch, arm number, arm shape, interarm distance at the Sun). We statistically compare the results over a long time frame, from 1980 to 2017. Histograms of about 90 individual results published in recent years (since mid-2015) are compared to 66 earlier results (from 1980 to 2005), showing the ratio of primary to secondary peaks to have increased by almost a factor of 3. Similarly, many earlier discrepancies (expressed in r.m.s.) have been reduced by almost a factor 3.

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arXiv2017

On the many '3-kiloparsec arms' - shocked wave and nuclear rotation

Many features near the Galactic Center have been called 3-kiloparsec arms. We reached a point of having too many divergent data, making it difficult to be constrained by a single physical model. Their differing characteristics suggest different physical and dynamical objects. Radial velocity data on the so-called 3-kpc arms do not coincide with radial velocities of major spiral arms near 3kpc, nor near 2 kpc, nor near 4 kpc from the Galactic Center (Fig. 1 and 2). Different 3-kpc arm features may require different models: turbulence around a shock in a Galactic density wave between 2 and 4 kpc from the Galactic Center (Table 1), or nuclear rotation between 0 and 2 kpc from the Galactic Center region (Table 2), or a putative radial expansion between 0 and 4 kpc from the Galactic Center. Despite their naming as Near 3-kiloparsec arms or Far 3-kiloparsec arms, these features are not major arms. Those 3-kpc arm features nearer the Galactic Center (within 13o of Galactic longitude) may be different than those farther out (Table 2). Here we show that the plethora of observed '3-kpc arm' features can be separated in two: those with Galactic longitude of 13 degrees or more away from the Galactic Center (Table 1 - some of which are possibly associated with the observed major spiral arms), and those within 13 degrees from the Galactic Center (Table 2 - some of which are possibly associated with the observed central bars; Fig.1 and Fig.2).

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arXiv2016

A substructure inside spiral arms, and a mirror image across the Galactic Meridian

While the galactic density wave theory is over 50 years old and well known in science, whether it fits our own Milky Way disk has been difficult to say. Here we show a substructure inside the spiral arms. This substructure is reversing with respect to the Galactic Meridian (longitude zero), and crosscuts of the arms at negative longitudes appear as mirror images of crosscuts of the arms at positive longitudes. Four lanes are delineated: mid-arm (extended 12CO gas at mid arm, HI atoms), in-between offset by about 100 pc (synchrotron, radio recombination lines), in between offset by about 200 pc (masers, colder dust), and inner edge (hotter dust seen in Mid-IR and Near-IR).

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arXiv2016

The start of the Sagittarius spiral arm (Sagittarius origin) and the start of the Norma spiral arm (Norma origin) - model-computed and observed arm tangents at galactic longitudes -20 degrees < l < +23 degrees

Here we fitted a 4-arm spiral structure to the more accurate data on global arm pitch angle and arm longitude tangents, to get the start of each spiral arm near the Galactic nucleus. We find that the tangent to the 'start of the Sagittarius' spiral arm (arm middle) is at l= -17 degrees +/- 0.5 degree, while the tangent to the 'start of the Norma' spiral arm (arm middle) is at l= +20 degrees +/- 0.5 degree. Earlier, we published a compilation of observations and analysis of the tangent to each spiral arm tracer, from longitudes +23 degrees to +340 degrees; here we cover the arm tracers in the remaining longitudes +340 degrees (=- 20 degrees) to +23 degrees. Our model arm tangents are confirmed through the recent observed masers data (at the arm's inner edge). Observed arm tracers in the inner Galaxy show an offset from the mid-arm; this was also found elsewhere in the Milky Way disk (Vallee 2014c). In addition, we collated the observed tangents to the so-called '3-kpc-arm' features; here they are found statistically to be near l= -18 degrees +/- 2 degrees and near l= +21 degrees +/- 2 degrees, after excluding misidentified spiral arms. We find that the model-computed arm tangents in the inner Galaxcy are spatially coincident with the mean longitude of the observed tangents to the '3-kpc-arm' features (same galactic longitudes, within the errors). These spatial similarities may be suggestive of a contiguous space.

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arXiv2015

Different studies of the global pitch angle of the Milky Way's spiral arms

There are many published values for the pitch angle of individual spiral arms, and their wide distribution (from -3 to -28 degrees) begs for various attempts for a single value. Each of the four statistical methods used here yields a mean pitch angle in a small range, between -12 and -14 degrees (table 7, figure 2). The final result of our meta-analysis yields a mean global pitch angle in the Milky Way's spiral arms of -13.1 degrees, plus or minus 0.6 degree.

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arXiv2014

Catalog of observed tangents to the spiral arms in the Milky Way galaxy

From the sun's location in the Galactic disk, one can use different arm tracers (CO, HII, thermal or ionized or relativistic electrons, masers, cold or hot dust, etc) to locate a tangent to each spiral arm in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. We present a Master catalog of the astronomically observed tangents to the Galaxy's spiral arms, using different arm tracers from the literature. Some arm tracers can have slightly divergent results from several papers, so a mean is taken - see Appendix for CO, HII, and masers. The Master catalog of means currently consists of 63 mean tracer entries, spread over many arms (Carina, Crux-Centaurus, Norma, Perseus origin, near 3-kpc, Scutum, Sagittarius), stemming from 107 original arm tracer entries. Additionally, we updated and revised a previous a previous statistical analysis of the angular offset and linear separation from the mid-arm, for each different mean arm tracer. Given enough arm tracers, and summing and averaging over all spiral arms, one could determine if arm tracers have separate and parallel lanes in the Milky Way. This statistical analysis allows a cross-cut of a galactic spiral arm to be made, confirming a recent discovery of a linear separation between arm tracers. Here, from the mid-arm's CO to the inner edge's hot dust, the arm half-width is about 340 parsecs; doubling would yield a full arm width of 680 parsecs. We briefly compare these observations with the predictions of many spiral arm theories, notably the density wave theory.

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