Laura Inno — Page 2

arXiv2017

New classical Cepheids in the inner part of the northern Galactic disk and their kinematics

The characteristics of the inner Galaxy remain obscured by significant dust extinction, and hence infrared surveys are useful to find young Cepheids whose distances and ages can be accurately determined. A near-infrared photometric and spectroscopic survey was carried out and three classical Cepheids were unveiled in the inner disk, around 20 and 30 degrees in Galactic longitude. The targets feature small Galactocentric distances, 3-5 kpc, and their velocities are important as they may be under the environmental influence of the Galactic bar. While one of the Cepheids has radial velocity consistent with the Galactic rotation, the other two are moving significantly slower. We also compare their kinematics with that of high-mass star-forming regions with parallactic distances measured.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

A lack of classical Cepheids in the inner part of the Galactic disk

Recent large-scale infrared surveys have been revealing stellar populations in the inner Galaxy seen through strong interstellar extinction in the disk. In particular, classical Cepheids with their period-luminosity and period-age relations are useful tracers of Galactic structure and evolution. Interesting groups of Cepheids reported recently include four Cepheids in the Nuclear Stellar Disk (NSD), about 200 pc around the Galactic Centre, found by Matsunaga et al. and those spread across the inner part of the disk reported by Dekany and collaborators. We here report our discovery of nearly thirty classical Cepheids towards the bulge region, some of which are common with Dekany et al., and discuss the large impact of the reddening correction on distance estimates for these objects. Assuming that the four Cepheids in the NSD are located at the distance of the Galactic Centre and that the near-infrared extinction law, i.e. wavelength dependency of the interstellar extinction, is not systematically different between the NSD and other bulge lines-of-sight, most of the other Cepheids presented here are located significantly further than the Galactic Centre. This suggests a lack of Cepheids in the inner 2.5 kpc region of the Galactic disk except the NSD. Recent radio observations show a similar distribution of star-forming regions.

astro-ph.GA↗