Dependence of Halo Properties on Galactic Potentials

  • Kim, Youngkwang (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Lee, Young Sun (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungnam National University) ;
  • Beers, Timothy C. (Department of Physics and JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements, University of Notre Dame)
  • Published : 2017.10.10

Abstract

We present the dependence of halo properties on two different Galactic potentials: the $St{\ddot{a}}ckel$ potential and the Milky Way-like potential known as "Galpy". Making use of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 (SDSS DR12), we find that the shape of the metallicity distribution and rotation velocity distribution abruptly changes at 15 kpc of $Z_{max}$ (the maximum distance of stellar orbit above or below the Galactic plane) and 32 kpc of $r_{max}$ (the maximum distance of an orbit from the Galactic center) in the $St{\ddot{a}}ckel$, which indicates that the transition from the inner to outer halo occurs at those distances. When adopting the $St{\ddot{a}}ckel$ potential, stars with $Z_{max}$ > 15 kpc show a retrograde motion of $V_{\phi}=-60km\;s^{-1}$, while stars with $r_{max}$ > 32 kpc show $V_{\phi}=-150km\;s^{-1}$. If we impose $V_{\phi}$ < $-150km\;s^{-1}$ to the stars with $Z_{max}$> 15 kpc or $r_{max}$> 32, we obtain the peak of the metallicity distribution at [Fe/H] = -1.9 and -1.7 respectively. However, there is the transition of the metallicity distribution at $Z_{max}=25kpc$, whereas there is no noticeable retrograde motion in the Galpy. The reason for this is that stars with high retrograde motion in the $St{\ddot{a}}ckel$ potential are unbound and stars with low rotation velocity reach to larger region of $Z_{max}$ and $r_{max}$ due to shallower potential in the Galpy. These results prove that as the adopted Galactic potential can affect the interpretation of the halo properties, it is required to have a more realistic Galactic potential for the thorough understanding of the dichotomy of the Galactic halo.

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