Is the sky falling? Searching for stellar streams in the local Milky Way disc in the CORAVEL and RAVE surveys

Abstract

We have searched for in-falling stellar streams on to the local Milky Way disc in the CORAVEL and RAVE surveys. The CORAVEL survey consists of local dwarf stars (Nordstrom et al. Geneva-Copenhagen survey) and local Famaey et al. giant stars. We select RAVE stars with radial velocities that are sensitive to the Galactic vertical space velocity (Galactic latitude b < -45 deg). Kuiper statistics have been employed to test the symmetry of the Galactic vertical velocity distribution functions in these samples for evidence of a net vertical flow that could be associated with a (tidal?) stream of stars with vertically coherent kinematics. In contrast to the `Field of Streams' found in the outer halo, we find that the local volumes of the solar neighbourhood sampled by the CORAVEL dwarfs (complete within ~3 x 10^-4 kpc^3), CORAVEL giants (complete within ~5 x 10^-2 kpc^3) and RAVE (5-15% complete within ~8 kpc^3) are devoid of any vertically coherent streams containing hundreds of stars. This is sufficiently sensitive to allow our RAVE sample to rule out the passing of the tidal stream of the disrupting Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy through the solar neighbourhood. This agrees with the most recent determination of its orbit and dissociates it from the Helmi et al. halo stream. Our constraints on the absence of the Sgr stream near the Sun could prove a useful tool for discriminating between Galactic potential models. The lack of a net vertical flow through the solar neighbourhood in the CORAVEL giants and RAVE samples argues against the Virgo overdensity crossing the disc near the Sun. There are no vertical streams in the CORAVEL giants and RAVE samples with stellar densities >1.6 x 10^4 and 1.5 x 10^3 stars kpc^-3 respectively and therefore no evidence for locally enhanced dark matter.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in MNRAS, 25 pages, 22 figures, 9 tables

References in corpus (52)

• Dark Matter Substructure in Galactic Halos
• Where are the missing galactic satellites?
• The Geneva-Copenhagen survey of the Solar neighbourhood: Ages, metallicities, and kinematic properties of 14,000 F and G dwarfs
• A 2MASS All-Sky View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy: I. Morphology of the Sagittarius Core and Tidal Arms
• Local stellar kinematics from Hipparcos data
• The Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): first data release
• The Field of Streams: Sagittarius and its Siblings
• The Ghost of Sagittarius and Lumps in the Halo of the Milky Way
• Kinematics of Metal-Poor Stars in the Galaxy. III. Formation of the Stellar Halo and Thick Disk as Revealed from a Large Sample of Non-Kinematically Selected Stars
• The RAVE Survey: Constraining the Local Galactic Escape Speed
• The SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey. Paper I: Introduction and Description
• The second US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC2)
• Debris streams in the solar neighbourhood as relicts from the formation of the Milky Way
• Simulations of Galaxy Formation in a Lambda CDM Universe II: The Fine Structure of Simulated Galactic Disks
• SkyMapper and the Southern Sky Survey
• Building up the Stellar Halo of the Galaxy
• Local kinematics of K and M giants from Coravel/Hipparcos/Tycho-2 data. Revisiting the concept of superclusters
• The Effects of Photoionization on Galaxy Formation - II: Satellites in the Local Group
• The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): Fourth data release
• The Geneva-Copenhagen Survey of the Solar neighbourhood II. New uvby calibrations and rediscussion of stellar ages, the G dwarf problem, age-metallicity diagram, and heating mechanisms of the disk
• An extensive library of 2500-10500 Ang synthetic spectra
• A 2MASS All-Sky View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy: IV. Modeling the Sagittarius Tidal Tails
• A Curious New Milky Way Satellite in Ursa Major
• An Orphan in the "Field of Streams"
• The Origin of the Bifurcation in the Sagittarius Stream
• Detection of a 60 Degree-Long Dwarf Galaxy Debris Stream
• Velocity trends in the debris of Sagittarius and the shape of the dark-matter halo of the Galaxy
• K-Band Calibration of the Red Clump Luminosity
• How Lumpy is the Milky Way's Dark Matter Halo?
• Tidal Streams as Probes of the Galactic Potential
• Kinematics of Metal-Poor Stars in the Galaxy. II. Proper Motions for a Large Non-Kinematically Selected Sample
• A comprehensive model for the Monoceros tidal stream
• The stellar velocity distribution in the solar neighbourhood
• Pieces of the puzzle: Ancient substructure in the Galactic disk
• Deciphering The Last Major Invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy
• A Two Micron All-Sky Survey View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy: II. Swope Telescope Spectroscopy of M Giant Stars in the Dynamically Cold Sagittarius Tidal Stream
• Spectroscopy of QUEST RR Lyrae Variables: the new Virgo Stellar Stream
• The Effects of the Sagittarius Dwarf Tidal Stream on Dark Matter Detectors
• Detectability of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles in the Sagittarius Dwarf Tidal Stream
• Velocity distribution of stars in the solar neighbourhood
• The Overdensity in Virgo, Sagittarius Debris, and the Asymmetric Spheroid
• Re-visiting the relations: Galactic thin disc age-velocity dispersion relation
• Halo Star Streams in the Solar Neighborhood
• Early evolution of the Galactic halo revealed from Hipparcos observations of metal-poor stars
• High-resolution spectroscopy of RGB stars in the Sagittarius Streams. I. Radial velocities and chemical abundances
• Is Ursa Major II the Progenitor of the Orphan Stream?
• The Virgo stellar over-density: Mapping the infall of the Sagittarius tidal stream onto the Milky Way disk
• An extensive library of synthetic spectra covering the far red, RAVE and GAIA wavelength ranges
• Kinematic Structure in the Galactic Halo at the North Galactic Pole: RR Lyrae and BHB Stars show different kinematics
• Determining the galactic mass distribution using tidal streams from globular clusters
• An Upper Limit on the Granularity of the Local Stellar Halo
• CADIS has seen the Virgo overdensity and parts of the Monoceros and `Orphan' streams in retrospect

Cited by in corpus (57)

• The Internal-Collision-Induced Magnetic Reconnection and Turbulence (ICMART) Model of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• The Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy: a Model for Evolution in a Triaxial Milky Way Halo
• The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): Fourth data release
• Annual Modulation of Dark Matter: A Review
• The RAVE survey: the Galactic escape speed and the mass of the Milky Way
• The Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): second data release
• Constraining GRB Initial Lorentz Factor with the Afterglow Onset Feature and Discovery of a Tight Gamma_0-E_iso Correlation
• The stellar halo of the Galaxy
• Evidence of an initially magnetically dominated outflow in GRB 080916C
• The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): Third Data Release
• Prompt high-energy emission from gamma-ray bursts in the internal shock model
• Local Stellar Kinematics from RAVE Data: I. Local Standard of Rest
• Two distinct halo populations in the solar neighborhood. III. Evidence from stellar ages and orbital parameters
• The Connection Between Thermal and Non-Thermal Emission in Gamma-ray Bursts: General Considerations and GRB090902B as a Case Study
• Lorentz Factor-Isotropic Luminosity/Energy Correlations of GRBS and Their Interpretation
• Interpreting Dark Matter Direct Detection Independently of the Local Velocity and Density Distribution
• Estimation of the Tilt of the Stellar Velocity Ellipsoid from RAVE and Implications for Mass Models
• The Role of Stochastic Acceleration in the Prompt Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts: Application to Hadronic Injection
• Insight Into the Formation of the Milky Way Through Cold Halo Substructure. I. The ECHOS of Milky Way Formation
• Distance determination for RAVE stars using stellar models II: Most likely values assuming a standard stellar evolution scenario
• Expected high energy emission from GRB 080319B and origins of the GeV emission of GRBs 080514B, 080916C and 081024B
• Diffuse interstellar bands in RAVE Survey spectra
• The Dawning of the Stream of Aquarius in RAVE
• Do Fermi-LAT observations imply very large Lorentz factors in GRB outflows ?
• Direct detection of WIMPs
• Double-lined Spectroscopic Binary Stars in the Radial Velocity Experiment Survey
• Dark Matter Direct Search Rates in Simulations of the Milky Way and Sagittarius Stream
• Spectroscopy of Bright QUEST RR Lyrae Stars: Velocity Substructures toward Virgo
• On the Implications of Late Internal Dissipation for Shallow-Decay Afterglow Emission and Associated High-Energy Gamma-Ray Signals
• Distance determination for RAVE stars using stellar models III: The nature of the RAVE survey and Milky Way chemistry
• Prompt optical emission and synchrotron self-absorption constraints on emission site of GRBs
• Stellar halo streams in the Solar neighbourhood
• Local stellar kinematics from RAVE data: II. Radial Metallicity Gradient
• Thick disk kinematics from RAVE and the solar motion
• Prompt GeV Emission from Residual Collisions in GRB Outflows: Evidence from Fermi Observations of GRB 080916c
• Thin disk kinematics from RAVE and the solar motion
• The Northern wraps of the Sagittarius Stream as traced by Red Clump stars: distances, intrinsic widths and stellar densities
• Insight Into the Formation of the Milky Way Through Cold Halo Substructure. III. Statistical Chemical Tagging in the Smooth Halo
• Insight Into the Formation of the Milky Way Through Cold Halo Substructure. II. The Elemental Abundances of ECHOS
• Dynamically Tagged Groups of Metal-Poor Stars II. The Radial Velocity Experiment Data Release 6
• Closure Relations for Electron-Positron Pair-Signatures in Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Can we probe the Lorentz factor of gamma-ray bursts from GeV-TeV spectra integrated over internal shocks?
• Peaked Signals from Dark Matter Velocity Structures in Direct Detection Experiments
• RAVE spectroscopy of luminous blue variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Classification of field dwarfs and giants in RAVE and its use in stellar stream detection
• Do the nearby BHB stars belong to the Thick Disk or the Halo?
• Low-Amplitude Variables: Distinguishing RR Lyrae stars from Eclipsing Binaries
• The Galactic thin and thick disk
• Kinematically Detected Halo Streams
• PeV Gamma Rays from Interactions of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays in the Milky Way
• Kinematics of Stellar Populations with RAVE Data
• High-Drag Interstellar Objects And Galactic Dynamical Streams
• Galactic Kinematics Derived from Data in the RAVE5, UCAC4, PPMXL, and Gaia TGAS Catalogs
• Modelling the transient processes produced under heavy particle irradiation
• Identification of field dwarfs and giants in RAVE
• Morphological Mutations of Dwarf Galaxies
• RAVE- First Results and Second Data Release