Gas Dynamics in the Galaxy: Total Mass Distribution and the Bar Pattern Speed

Abstract

Gas morphology and kinematics in the Milky Way contain key information for understanding the formation and evolution of our Galaxy. We present a high resolution hydrodynamical simulation based on a realistic barred Milky Way potential constrained by recent observations. Our model can reproduce most features in the observed longitude-velocity diagram, including the Central Molecular Zone, the Near and Far 3-kpc arms, the Molecular Ring, and the spiral arm tangents. It can also explain the non-circular motions of masers obtained by the recent BeSSeL2 survey. The central gas kinematics are consistent with a mass of $6.9\times 10^8{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ in the Nuclear Stellar Disk. Our model predicts the formation of an elliptical gaseous ring surrounding the bar, which is composed of the 3-kpc arms, Norma arm, and the bar-spiral interfaces. This ring is similar to those "inner" rings in some Milky Way analogs with a boxy/peanut-shaped bulge. The kinematics of gas near the solar neighbourhood are governed by the Local arm, which is induced by the four major stellar spiral arms. The bar pattern speed constrained by our gas model is $37.5-40\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{kpc}}^{-1}$, corresponding to a corotation radius of $R_{\mathrm{CR}}=6.0-6.4\mathrm{kpc}$. The rotation curve of our model rises gently within the central $\sim 5\mathrm{kpc}$, which is significantly less steep than those predicted by modern zoom-in cosmological simulations such as Auriga.

23 pages, 14 figures. ApJ accepted, comments are welcome

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