Non-circular Motions in the Outer Perseus Spiral Arm

Abstract

We report measurements of parallax and proper motion for five 6.7-GHz methanol maser sources in the outer regions of the Perseus arm as part of the BeSSeL Survey of the Galaxy. By combining our results with previous astrometric results, we determine an average spiral arm pitch angle of $9.2\pm 1.5$ deg and an arm width of 0.39 kpc for this spiral arm. For sources in the interior side of the Perseus arm, we find on average a radial inward motion in the Galaxy of $13.3\pm 5.4$ km s${}^{-1}$ and counter to Galactic rotation of $6.2\pm 3.2$ km s${}^{-1}$. These characteristics are consistent with models for spiral arm formation that involve gas entering an arm to be shocked and then forming stars. However, similar data for other spiral arms do not show similar characteristics.

Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 4 tables & 5 figures

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