Does the Second Caustic Ring of Dark Matter Cause the Monoceros Ring of Stars ?

Abstract

Caustic rings of dark matter were predicted to exist in the plane of the Galaxy at radii $a_n\simeq 40\mathrm{kpc}/n$ for $n=1,2,\mathrm{3..}$. The recently discovered Monoceros Ring of stars is located near the $n=2$ caustic, prompting us to consider a possible connection between these two objects. We identify two processes through which the Monoceros Ring of stars may have formed. One process is the migration of gas to an angular velocity minimum at the caustic leading to enhanced star formation there. The other is the adiabatic deformation of star orbits as the caustic slowly grows in mass and radius. The second process predicts an order 100% enhancement of the density of disk stars at the location of the caustic ring.

21 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Outer structure of the Galactic warp and flare: explaining the Canis Major over-density
• A High Resolution Search for Dark-Matter Axions
• Annual Modulation of Dark Matter in the Presence of Streams
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• On the Origin of the Monoceros Ring - I: Kinematics, proper motions, and the nature of the progenitor
• A Megacam Survey of Outer Halo Satellites. IV. Two foreground populations possibly associated with the Monoceros substructure in the direction of NGC2419 and Koposov2
• Dark Matter Caustics in Galaxy Clusters
• The gravitational force field of proto-pancakes
• Effects of a dark matter caustic passing through the Oort cloud
• The nine rings of the galaxy LEDA 1313424