arXiv subjects

Matthieu Portail

Publications and source records attributed to Matthieu Portail.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

The stellar mass distribution of the Milky Way's bar: an analytic model

We present an analytic model of the stellar mass distribution of the Milky Way bar. The model is obtained by fitting a multi-component parametric density distribution to a made-to-measure N-body model of Portail et al., constructed to match a variety of density and kinematics observational data. The analytic model reproduces in detail the 3D density distribution of the N-body bar including the X-shape. The model and the gravitational potential it generates are available as part of the software package AGAMA for galactic dynamics, and can be readily used for orbit integrations, hydrodynamical simulations or other applications.

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arXiv2018

Sculpting Andromeda -- made-to-measure models for M31's bar and composite bulge: dynamics, stellar and dark matter mass

The Andromeda galaxy (M31) contains a box/peanut bulge (BPB) entangled with a classical bulge (CB) requiring a triaxial modelling to determine the dynamics, stellar and dark matter mass. We construct made-to-measure models fitting new VIRUS-W IFU bulge stellar kinematic observations, the IRAC-3.6$\mu$m photometry, and the disc's HI rotation curve. We explore the parameter space for the 3.6$\mu$m mass-to-light ratio $(\Upsilon_{3.6})$, the bar pattern speed ($\Omega_p$), and the dark matter mass in the composite bulge ($M^B_{DM}$) within 3.2kpc. Considering Einasto dark matter profiles, we find the best models for $\Upsilon_{3.6}=0.72\pm0.02\,M_\odot/L_\odot$, $M^B_{DM}=1.2^{+0.2}_{-0.4}\times10^{10}M_\odot$ and $\Omega_p=40\pm5\,km/s/kpc$. These models have a dynamical bulge mass of $M_{dyn}^B=4.25^{+0.10}_{-0.29}\times10^{10}M_{\odot}$ including a stellar mass of $M^B=3.09^{+0.10}_{-0.12}\times10^{10}M_\odot$(73%), of which the CB has $M^{CB}=1.18^{+0.06}_{-0.07}\times10^{10}M_\odot$(28%) and the BPB $M^{BPB}=1.91\pm0.06\times10^{10}M_\odot$(45%). We also explore models with NFW haloes finding that, while the Einasto models better fit the stellar kinematics, the obtained parameters agree within the errors. The $M^B_{DM}$ values agree with adiabatically contracted cosmological NFW haloes with M31's virial mass and radius. The best model has two bulge components with completely different kinematics that only together successfully reproduce the observations ($\mu_{3.6},\upsilon_{los},\sigma_{los},h3,h4$). The modelling includes dust absorption which reproduces the observed kinematic asymmetries. Our results provide new constraints for the early formation of M31 given the lower mass found for the classical bulge and the shallow dark matter profile, as well as the secular evolution of M31 implied by the bar and its resonant interactions with the classical bulge, stellar halo and disc.

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arXiv2017

The Initial Mass Function of the Inner Galaxy Measured From OGLE-III Microlensing Timescales

We use the timescale distribution of ~3000 microlensing events measured by the OGLE-III survey, together with accurate new made-to-measure dynamical models of the Galactic bulge/bar region, to measure the IMF in the inner Milky Way. The timescale of each event depends on the mass of the lensing object, together with the relative distances and velocities of the lens and source. The dynamical model provides statistically these distances and velocities allowing us to constrain the lens mass function, and from this to infer the IMF. Parameterising the IMF as a broken power-law, we find slopes in the main sequence $\alpha_{\rm ms}=1.31\pm0.10|_{\rm stat}\pm0.10|_{\rm sys}$ and brown dwarf region $\alpha_{\rm bd}=-0.7\pm0.9|_{\rm stat}\pm0.8|_{\rm sys}$ where we use a fiducial 50% binary fraction, and the systematic uncertainty covers the range of binary fractions 0-100%. Similarly for a log-normal IMF we conclude $M_c=(0.17\pm0.02|_{\rm stat}\pm0.01|_{\rm sys})M_\odot$ and $\sigma_m=0.49\pm0.07|_{\rm stat}\pm0.06|_{\rm sys}$. These values are very similar to a Kroupa or Chabrier IMF respectively, showing that the IMF in the bulge is indistinguishable from that measured locally, despite the lenses lying in the inner Milky Way where the stars are mostly ~10Gyr old and formed on a fast $\alpha$-element enhanced timescale. This therefore constrains models of IMF variation that depend on the properties of the collapsing gas cloud.

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arXiv2017

Chemodynamical Modelling of the Galactic Bulge and Bar

We present the first self-consistent chemodynamical model fitted to reproduce data for the galactic bulge, bar and inner disk. We extend the Made-to-Measure method to an augmented phase-space including the metallicity of stars, and show its first application to the bar region of the Milky Way. Using data from the ARGOS and APOGEE (DR12) surveys, we adapt the recent dynamical model from Portail et al. to reproduce the observed spatial and kinematic variations as a function of metallicity, thus allowing the detailed study of the 3D density distributions, kinematics and orbital structure of stars in different metallicity bins. We find that metal-rich stars with [Fe/H] > -0.5 are strongly barred and have dynamical properties that are consistent with a common disk origin. Metal-poor stars with [Fe/H] < -0.5 show strong kinematic variations with metallicity, indicating varying contributions from the underlying stellar populations. Outside the central kpc, metal-poor stars are found to have the density and kinematics of a thick disk while in the inner kpc, evidence for an extra concentration of metal-poor stars is found. Finally, the combined orbit distributions of all metallicities in the model naturally reproduce the observed vertex deviations in the bulge. This paper demonstrates the power of Made-to-Measure chemodynamical models, that when extended to other chemical dimensions will be very powerful tools to maximize the information obtained from large spectroscopic surveys such as APOGEE, GALAH and MOONS.

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arXiv2017

Revisiting the Tale of Hercules: how stars orbiting the Lagrange points visit the Sun

We propose a novel explanation for the Hercules stream consistent with recent measurements of the extent and pattern speed of the Galactic bar. We have adapted a made-to-measure dynamical model tailored for the Milky Way to investigate the kinematics of the solar neighborhood (SNd). The model matches the 3D density of the red clump giant stars (RCGs) in the bulge and bar as well as stellar kinematics in the inner Galaxy, with a pattern speed of 39 km s$^{-1}$ kpc$^{-1}$. Cross-matching this model with the $Gaia$ DR1 TGAS data combined with RAVE and LAMOST radial velocities, we find that the model naturally predicts a bimodality in the $U\!-\!V$-velocity distribution for nearby stars which is in good agreement with the Hercules stream. In the model, the Hercules stream is made of stars orbiting the Lagrange points of the bar which move outward from the bar's corotation radius to visit the SNd. While the model is not yet a quantitative fit of the velocity distribution, the new picture naturally predicts that the Hercules stream is more prominent inward from the Sun and nearly absent only a few $100$ pc outward of the Sun, and plausibly explains that Hercules is prominent in old and metal-rich stars.

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arXiv2016

Andromeda chained to the Box -- Dynamical Models for M31: Bulge & Bar

Andromeda is our nearest neighbouring disk galaxy and a prime target for detailed modelling of the evolutionary processes that shape galaxies. We analyse the nature of M31's triaxial bulge with an extensive set of N-body models, which include Box/Peanut (B/P) bulges as well as initial classical bulges (ICBs). Comparing with IRAC 3.6$\mu m$ data, only one model matches simultaneously all the morphological properties of M31's bulge, and requires an ICB and a B/P bulge with 1/3 and 2/3 of the total bulge mass respectively. We find that our pure B/P bulge models do not show concentrations high enough to match the S\'ersic index ($n$) and the effective radius of M31's bulge. Instead, the best model requires an ICB component with mass $M^{\rm ICB}=1.1\times10^{10}{\rm M_{\odot}}$ and three-dimensional half-mass radius $r_{\rm half}^{\rm ICB}$=0.53 kpc (140 arcsec). The B/P bulge component has a mass of $M^{\rm B/P}=2.2\times10^{10}{\rm M_{\odot}}$ and a half-mass radius of $r_{\rm half}^{\rm B/P}$=1.3 kpc (340 arcsec). The model's B/P bulge extends to $r^{\rm B/P}$=3.2 kpc (840 arcsec) in the plane of the disk, as does M31's bulge. In this composite bulge model, the ICB component explains the velocity dispersion drop observed in the centre within $R<$190 pc (50 arcsec), while the B/P bulge component reproduces the observed rapid rotation and the kinematic twist of the observed zero velocity line. This model's pattern speed is $\Omega_p$=38 km/s/kpc, placing corotation at $r_{\rm cor}$=5.8 kpc (1500 arcsec). The outer Lindblad resonance (OLR) is then at $r_{\rm OLR}$=10.4kpc, near the 10kpc-ring of M31, suggesting that this structure may be related to the bar's OLR. By comparison with an earlier snapshot, we estimate that M31's thin bar extends to $r_{\rm bar}^{\rm thin}\sim$4.0 kpc (1000 arcsec) in the disk plane, and in projection extends to $R_{\rm bar}^{\rm thin}\sim$2.3 kpc (600 arcsec).

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arXiv2016

The Stellar Halo in the Inner Milky Way: Predicted Shape and Kinematics

We have used N-body simulations for the Milky Way to investigate the kinematic and structural properties of the old metal-poor stellar halo in the barred inner region of the Galaxy. We find that the extrapolation of the density distribution for bulge RR Lyrae stars, $\rho\sim r^{-3}$, approximately matches the number density of RR Lyrae in the nearby stellar halo. We follow the evolution of such a tracer population through the formation and evolution of the bar and box/peanut bulge in the N-body model. We find that its density distribution changes from oblate to triaxial, and that it acquires slow rotation in agreement with recent measurements. The maximum radial velocity is $\sim15-25$ km/s at $| l|\!=10^\circ-30^\circ$, and the velocity dispersion is $\sim120$ km/s. Even though the simulated metal-poor halo in the bulge has a barred shape, just $12\%$ of the orbits follow the bar, and it does not trace the peanut/X structure. With these properties, the RR Lyrae population in the Galactic bulge is consistent with being the inward extension of the Galactic metal-poor stellar halo.

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arXiv2016

Dynamical modelling of the Galactic bulge and bar: the Milky Way's bar pattern speed, stellar, and dark matter mass distribution

We construct a large set of dynamical models of the galactic bulge, bar and inner disk using the Made-to-Measure method. Our models are constrained to match the red clump giant density from a combination of the VVV, UKIDSS and 2MASS infrared surveys together with stellar kinematics in the bulge from the BRAVA and OGLE surveys, and in the entire bar region from the ARGOS survey. We are able to recover the bar pattern speed and the stellar and dark matter mass distributions in the bar region, thus recovering the entire galactic effective potential. We find a bar pattern speed of $39.0 \pm 3.5 \,\rm{km\,s^{-1}\,kpc^{-1}}$, placing the bar corotation radius at $6.1 \pm 0.5 \rm{kpc}$ and making the Milky Way bar a typical fast rotator. We evaluate the stellar mass of the long bar and bulge structure to be $M_{\rm{bar/bulge}} = 1.88 \pm 0.12 \times 10^{10} \, \rm{M}_{\odot}$, larger than the mass of disk in the bar region, $M_{\rm{inner\ disk}} = 1.29\pm0.12 \times 10^{10} \, \rm{M}_{\odot}$. The total dynamical mass in the bulge volume is $1.85\pm0.05\times 10^{10} \, \rm{M}_{\odot}$. Thanks to more extended kinematic data sets and recent measurement of the bulge IMF our models have a low dark matter fraction in the bulge of $17\%\pm2\%$. We find a dark matter density profile which flattens to a shallow cusp or core in the bulge region. Finally, we find dynamical evidence for an extra central mass of $\sim0.2\times10^{10} \,\rm{M}_{\odot}$, probably in a nuclear disk or disky pseudobulge.

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arXiv2016

MOA-II Galactic Microlensing Constraints: The Inner Milky Way has a Low Dark Matter Fraction and a Near Maximal Disk

Microlensing provides a unique tool to break the stellar to dark matter degeneracy in the inner Milky Way. We combine N-body dynamical models fitted to the Milky Way's Boxy/Peanut bulge with exponential disk models outside this, and compute the microlensing properties. Considering the range of models consistent with the revised MOA-II data, we find low dark matter fractions in the inner Galaxy: at the peak of their stellar rotation curve a fraction $f_v=(0.88\pm0.07)$ of the circular velocity is baryonic (at $1\sigma$, $f_v > 0.72$ at $2\sigma$). These results are in agreement with constraints from the EROS-II microlensing survey of brighter resolved stars, where we find $f_v=(0.9\pm0.1)$ at $1\sigma$. Our fiducial model of a disk with scale length 2.6kpc, and a bulge with a low dark matter fraction of 12%, agrees with both the revised MOA-II and EROS-II microlensing data. The required baryonic fractions, and the resultant low contribution from dark matter, are consistent with the NFW profiles produced by dissipationless cosmological simulations in Milky Way mass galaxies. They are also consistent with recent prescriptions for the mild adiabatic contraction of Milky Way mass haloes without the need for strong feedback, but there is some tension with recent measurements of the local dark matter density. Microlensing optical depths from the larger OGLE-III sample could improve these constraints further when available.

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arXiv2016

Gas dynamics in the Milky Way: a low pattern speed model

We present gas flow models for the Milky Way based on high-resolution grid-based hydrodynamical simulations. The basic galactic potential we use is from a N-body model constrained by the density of red clump giants in the Galactic bulge. We augment this potential with a nuclear bulge, two pairs of spiral arms and additional mass at the bar end to represent the long bar component. With this combined model we can reproduce many features in the observed ($l,v$) diagram with a bar pattern speed of $33\; {\rm km}\;{\rm s}^{-1}\;{\rm kpc}^{-1}$ and a spiral pattern speed of $23\; {\rm km}\;{\rm s}^{-1}\;{\rm kpc}^{-1}$. The shape and kinematics of the nuclear ring, Bania's Clump 2, the Connecting arm, the Near and Far 3-kpc arms, the Molecular Ring, and the spiral arm tangent points in our simulations are comparable to those in the observations. Our results imply that a low pattern speed model for the bar in our Milky Way reproduces the observations for a suitable Galactic potential. Our best model gives a better match to the ($l,v$) diagram than previous high pattern speed hydrodynamical simulations.

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arXiv2015

The Structure of the Milky Way's Bar Outside the Bulge

While it is incontrovertible that the inner Galaxy contains a bar, its structure near the Galactic plane has remained uncertain, where extinction from intervening dust is greatest. We investigate here the Galactic bar outside the bulge, the long bar, using red clump giant (RCG) stars from UKIDSS, 2MASS, VVV, and GLIMPSE. We match and combine these surveys to investigate a wide area in latitude and longitude, |b|<9deg and |l|<40deg. We find: (1) The bar extends to l~25deg at |b|~5deg from the Galactic plane, and to l~30deg at lower latitudes. (2) The long bar has an angle to the line-of-sight in the range (28-33)deg, consistent with studies of the bulge at |l|<10deg. (3) The scale-height of RCG stars smoothly transitions from the bulge to the thinner long bar. (4) There is evidence for two scale heights in the long bar. We find a ~180pc thin bar component reminiscent of the old thin disk near the sun, and a ~45pc super-thin bar component which exists predominantly towards the bar end. (5) Constructing parametric models for the RC magnitude distributions, we find a bar half length of 5.0+-0.2kpc for the 2-component bar, and 4.6+-0.3kpc for the thin bar component alone. We conclude that the Milky Way contains a central box/peanut bulge which is the vertical extension of a longer, flatter bar, similar as seen in both external galaxies and N-body models.

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