The DOI matches its Crossref record; 63 of the 63 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Milky Way’s Circular Velocity Curve to 60 kpc and an Estimate of the Dark Matter Halo Mass from the Kinematics of ∼2400 SDSS Blue Horizontal‐Branch Stars
Open accessAbstract
We derive new constraints on the mass of the Milky Way's dark matter halo, based on 2401 rigorously selected blue horizontal-branch halo stars from SDSS DR6. This sample enables construction of the full line-of-sight velocity distribution at different galactocentric radii. To interpret these distributions, we compare them to matched mock observations drawn from two different cosmological galaxy formation simulations designed to resemble the Milky Way. This procedure results in an estimate of the Milky Way's circular velocity curve to ~60 kpc, which is found to be slightly falling from the adopted value of 220 km s −1 at the Sun's location, and implies M (< 60 kpc) = (4.0 ± 0.7) × 10 11 M ☉ . The radial dependence of V cir ( r ) , derived in statistically independent bins, is found to be consistent with the expectations from an NFW dark matter halo with the established stellar mass components at its center. If we assume that an NFW halo profile of characteristic concentration holds, we can use the observations to estimate the virial mass of the Milky Way's dark matter halo, M vir = 1.0 + 0.3 −0.2 × 10 12 M ☉ , which is lower than many previous estimates. We have checked that the particulars of the cosmological simulations are unlikely to introduce systematics larger than the statistical uncertainties. This estimate implies that nearly 40% of the baryons within the virial radius of the Milky Way's dark matter halo reside in the stellar components of our Galaxy. A value for M vir of only ~1 × 10 12 M ☉ also (re)opens the question of whether all of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies are on bound orbits.
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Cites
Schlegel, D. J., Finkbeiner, D. P., & Davis, M. (1998) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/305772 · Cited by 15,126
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
York, D. G., Adelman, J., Anderson, Jr., Anderson, S. F., Annis, J., Bahcall, N. A., Bakken, J. A., Barkhouser, R., Bastian, S., Berman, E., et al. (2000) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/301513 · Cited by 10,366
Self-citationThe Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos
Navarro, J. F., Frenk, C. S., & White, S. D. M. (1996) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/177173 · Cited by 8,544 · cited 2×
“In turn, the extended stellar distributions of galaxies, in particular the stellar halos of nearby galaxies, offer some of the best probes to test generic predictions about the nature of dark matter mass profiles (Navarro et al. 1996).”
BackgroundMethodThe cosmological simulation code gadget-2
Springel, V. (2005) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09655.x · Cited by 6,368
The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
Petkova, M., & Springel, V. (2005) · Cited by 3,918
An analytical model for spherical galaxies and bulges
Hernquist, L. (1990) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/168845 · Cited by 3,126
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric System
Fukugita, M., Ichikawa, T., Gunn, J. E., Doi, M., Shimasaku, K., & Schneider, D. P. (1996) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/117915 · Cited by 3,033 · cited 1×
“The Sloan Digital Sky Survey uses a CCD camera (Gunn et al. 1998) on a dedicated 2.5m telescope (Gunn et al. 2006) at Apache Point Observatory, New Mexico, to obtain images in five broad optical bands (ugriz; Fukugita et al. 1996).”
MethodSelf-citationSloan Digital Sky Survey: Early Data Release
Stoughton, C., Lupton, R. H., Bernardi, M., Blanton, M. R., Burles, S., Castander, F. J., Connolly, A. J., Eisenstein, D. J., Frieman, J. A., Hennessy, G. S., et al. (2002) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/324741 · Cited by 2,390
Self-citationThe 2.5 m Telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Gunn, J. E., Siegmund, W. A., Mannery, E. J., Owen, R. E., Hull, C. L., Leger, R. F., Carey, L. N., Knapp, G. R., York, D. G., Boroski, W. N., et al. (2006) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1086/500975 · Cited by 2,373
Self-citationSpringel, V., & Hernquist, L. (2003) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06206.x · Cited by 2,262
Cited by
The Galaxy in Context: Structural, Kinematic, and Integrated Properties
Bland-Hawthorn, J., & Gerhard, O. (2016) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-081915-023441 · Cited by 1,656
galpy: A python LIBRARY FOR GALACTIC DYNAMICS
Bovy, J. (2015) · The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series · doi:10.1088/0067-0049/216/2/29 · Cited by 1,537
SEGUE: A SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY OF 240,000 STARS WITH g = 14-20
Yanny, B., Rockosi, C., Newberg, H. J., Knapp, G. R., Adelman-McCarthy, J. K., Alcorn, B., Allam, S., Prieto, C. A., An, D., Anderson, K. S. J., et al. (2009) · The Astronomical Journal · doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/5/4377 · Cited by 1,162
“The recent work of Xue et al. (2008) shows how this sample probes large enough distances in the halo to constrain the mass of the Milky Way at d ∼ 50 kpc.”
BackgroundSelf-citationThe mass distribution and gravitational potential of the Milky Way
McMillan, P. J. (2017) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2759 · Cited by 1,099
“Deason et al.(2012) and Xue et al. (2008) used samples of blue horizontal branch stars to determine the mass contained within 50 and 60 kpc (respectively).”
MethodMcMillan, P. J. (2011) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.18564.x · Cited by 789
Metadata
- Authors
- Xue, X. X., Rix, H. W., Zhao, G., Re Fiorentin, P., Naab, T., Steinmetz, M., van den Bosch, F. C., Beers, T. C., Lee, Y. S., Bell, E. F., Rockosi, C., Yanny, B., Newberg, H., Wilhelm, R., Kang, X., Smith, M. C., & Schneider, D. P.
- Venue
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Publisher
- American Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2008-09-10
- Volume
- 684
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 1143-1158
- ISSN
- 0004-637X (ISSN-L)
- 1538-4357
- OpenAlex
- W2118239294
- Cited by
- 733
- References
- 63
- FWCI
- 33.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
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- Xue, X. X., Rix, H. W., Zhao, G., Re Fiorentin, P., Naab, T., Steinmetz, M., van den Bosch, F. C., Beers, T. C., Lee, Y. S., Bell, E. F., Rockosi, C., Yanny, B., Newberg, H., Wilhelm, R., Kang, X., Smith, M. C., & Schneider, D. P. (2008). The Milky Way’s Circular Velocity Curve to 60 kpc and an Estimate of the Dark Matter Halo Mass from the Kinematics of ∼2400 SDSS Blue Horizontal‐Branch Stars. The Astrophysical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1086/589500
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