Hic sunt dracones: Cartography of the Milky Way spiral arms and bar resonances with Gaia Data Release 2

Abstract

In this paper we introduce a new method for analysing Milky Way phase-space which allows us to reveal the imprint left by the Milky Way bar and spiral arms on the stars with full phase-space data in Gaia Data Release 2. The unprecedented quality and extended spatial coverage of these data enable us to discover six prominent stellar density structures in the disc to a distance of 5 kpc from the Sun. Four of these structures correspond to the spiral arms detected previously in the gas and young stars (Scutum-Centaurus, Sagittarius, Local and Perseus). The remaining two are associated with the main resonances of the Milky Way bar where corotation is placed at around 6.2 kpc and the outer Lindblad resonance beyond the Solar radius, at around 9 kpc. For the first time we provide evidence of the imprint left by spiral arms and resonances in the stellar densities not relying on a specific tracer, through enhancing the signatures left by these asymmetries. Our method offers new avenues for studying how the stellar populations in our Galaxy are shaped.

10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letters

References in corpus (15)

• Trigonometric Parallaxes Of High-Mass Star Forming Regions: Our View Of The Milky Way
• Dynamical modelling of the Galactic bulge and bar: the Milky Way's bar pattern speed, stellar, and dark matter mass distribution
• The Structure of the Milky Way's Bar Outside the Bulge
• Distances and parallax bias in Gaia DR2
• Radial and vertical flows induced by galactic spiral arms: likely contributors to our "wobbly Galaxy''
• The effect of radial migration on galactic disks
• Geometrically Derived Timescales for Star Formation in Spiral Galaxies
• The local spiral structure of the Milky Way
• An HST Archival Survey of Feathers in Spiral Galaxies
• The power spectrum of the Milky Way: Velocity fluctuations in the Galactic disk
• On the ridges, undulations & streams in Gaia DR2: Linking the topography of phase-space to the orbital structure of an N-body bar
• Mapping Spiral Structure on the far side of the Milky Way
• Resonances in Barred Galaxies
• Implications of a time-varying Galactic potential for determinations of the dynamical surface density
• What the Milky Way bulge reveals about the initial metallicity gradients in the disc

Cited by in corpus (48)

• Galactic spiral structure revealed by Gaia EDR3
• Three-dimensional extinction maps: Inverting inter-calibrated extinction catalogues
• Spirals in galaxies
• Stellar migrations and metal flows -- Chemical evolution of the thin disc of a simulated Milky Way analogous galaxy
• A Tale of Two Disks: Mapping the Milky Way with the Final Data Release of APOGEE
• Mapping the Milky Way Disk with Gaia DR3: 3D extended kinematic maps and rotation curve to $\approx 30$ kpc
• Bimodality of [α/Fe]-[Fe/H] distributions is a natural outcome of dissipative collapse and disc growth in Milky Way-type galaxies
• Gaia Data Release 3: Chemical cartography of the Milky Way
• Stellar halo substructure generated by bar resonances
• Chemo-kinematics of the Milky Way spiral arms and bar resonances: connection to ridges and moving groups in the Solar vicinity
• Extreme kinematic misalignment in IllustrisTNG galaxies: the origin, structure and internal dynamics of galaxies with a large-scale counterrotation
• Radial structure and formation of the Milky Way disc
• Mass models of the Milky Way and estimation of its mass from the GAIA DR3 data-set
• Identifying resonances of the Galactic bar in Gaia DR2: II. Clues from angle space
• Tidally induced spiral arm wraps encoded in phase space
• The spiral structure in the Solar neighborhood
• Radial halo substructure in harmony with the Galactic bar
• Vertical Phase Mixing across the Galactic Disk
• Timing the Milky Way bar formation and the accompanying radial migration episode
• Evidence of a vertical kinematic oscillation beyond the Radcliffe Wave
• Gaia Data Release 3: spectroscopic binary-star orbital solutions. The SB1 processing chain
• Local Spiral Structure Traced by Red Clump Stars
• The power of co-ordinate transformations in dynamical interpretations of Galactic structure
• Modeling of Spiral Structure in a Multi-Component Milky~Way-Like Galaxy
• A Holistic Review of a Galactic Interaction
• A low density-wave spiral pattern speed, from the tracer separations (age gradient) across a spiral arm in the Milky Way
• The historical record of massive star formation in Cygnus
• Impact of bar resonances in the velocity-space distribution of the solar neighbourhood stars in a self-consistent $N$-body Galactic disc simulation
• Parallax-based Distances to Galactic Hii Regions: Nearby Spiral Structure
• Constraints on the history of Galactic spiral arms revealed by Gaia GSP-Spec alpha-elements
• FEDReD III : Unraveling the 3D structure of Vela
• Trojan globular clusters: radial migration via trapping in bar resonances
• A non-axisymmetric potential for the Milky Way disk
• Rediscovering the Milky Way with orbit superposition approach and APOGEE data I. Method validation
• Rediscovering the Milky Way with orbit superposition approach and APOGEE data II. Chrono-chemo-kinematics of the disc
• A Galactic Self-Portrait: Density Structure and Integrated Properties of the Milky Way Disk
• Axial Asymmetry Studies in Gaia Data Release 2 Yield the Pattern Speed of the Galactic Bar
• Arm Tangents and the spiral structure of the Milky Way ; the Age Gradient
• Dynamical streams in the local stellar halo
• Dynamical mirages: how bar-induced resonant trapping can mimic substructure clustering in dynamical parameter spaces
• On the formation of spiral arms in dwarf galaxies
• Rediscovering the Milky Way with orbit superposition approach and APOGEE data III. Panoramic view of the bulge
• Quadrupole signature as a kinematic diagnostic to constrain bar properties : implications for the Milky Way
• Tracing Milky Way substructure with an RR Lyrae hierarchical clustering forest
• Rapid early gas accretion for the inner Galactic disc
• Distance and extinction to the Milky Way spiral arms along the Galactic centre line of sight
• Galactic tides in the Solar System within a non-axisymmetric Milky Way model adjusted to Gaia data
• Evolution of action-space coherence in a Milky Way-like simulation