The DOI matches its Crossref record; 94 of the 94 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The total stellar halo mass of the Milky Way
Open accessAbstract
We measure the total stellar halo luminosity using red giant branch (RGB) stars selected from Gaia data release 2. Using slices in magnitude, colour, and location on the sky, we decompose RGB stars belonging to the disc and halo by fitting two-dimensional Gaussians to the Galactic proper motion distributions. The number counts of RGB stars are converted to total stellar halo luminosity using a suite of isochrones weighted by age and metallicity, and by applying a volume correction based on the stellar halo density profile. Our method is tested and calibrated using Galaxia and N-body models. We find a total luminosity (out to 100 kpc) of $L_{\rm halo} = 7.9 \pm 2.0 \times 10^8\, \mathrm{L}_\odot$ excluding Sgr, and $L_{\rm halo} = 9.4 \pm 2.4 \times 10^8\, \mathrm{L}_\odot$ including Sgr. These values are appropriate for our adopted stellar halo density profile and metallicity distribution, but additional systematics related to these assumptions are quantified and discussed. Assuming a stellar mass-to-light ratio appropriate for a Kroupa initial mass function (M⋆/L = 1.5), we estimate a stellar halo mass of $M^\star _{\rm halo} = 1.4 \pm 0.4\times 10^9 \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$. This mass is larger than previous estimates in the literature, but is in good agreement with the emerging picture that the (inner) stellar halo is dominated by one massive dwarf progenitor. Finally, we argue that the combination of a ${\sim}10^9\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ mass and an average metallicity of 〈[Fe/H]〉 ∼ −1.5 for the Galactic halo points to an ancient (∼10 Gyr) merger event.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“which is similar in mass to the stellar halo (1 : 4 0 : 4 10 9 M , see Deason et al. 2019).”
From Kraken reveals itself – the merger history of the Milky Way reconstructed with the E-MOSAICS simulations (2020) · cites this paper as Deason et al. 2019
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Schlegel, D. J., Finkbeiner, D. P., & Davis, M. (1998) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/305772 · Cited by 15,126
Foreman-Mackey, D., Hogg, D. W., Lang, D., & Goodman, J. (2013) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1086/670067 · Cited by 14,336
Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
Chabrier, G. (2003) · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · doi:10.1086/376392 · Cited by 9,071
Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties
Gaia Collaboration, Brown, A. G. A., Vallenari, A., Prusti, T., de Bruijne, J. H. J., Babusiaux, C., Bailer-Jones, C. A. L., Biermann, M., Evans, D. W., Eyer, L., et al. (2018) · Astronomy & Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833051 · Cited by 8,442
On the variation of the initial mass function
Kroupa, P. (2001) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04022.x · Cited by 7,499
Prusti, T., de Bruijne, J. H. J., Brown, A. G. A., Vallenari, A., Babusiaux, C., Bailer‐Jones, C. A. L., Bastian, U., Biermann, M., Evans, D. W., Eyer, L., et al. (2016) · Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201629272 · Cited by 7,350
The Luminosity function and stellar evolution
Salpeter, E. (1955) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.1086/145971 · Cited by 6,816
parsec : stellar tracks and isochrones with the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code
Bressan, A., Marigo, P., Girardi, L., Salasnich, B., Cero, C. D., Rubele, S., & Nanni, A. (2012) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21948.x · Cited by 4,055
Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass FunctionPreprint
Chabrier, G. (2003) · Cited by 4,012
MESA ISOCHRONES AND STELLAR TRACKS (MIST). I. SOLAR-SCALED MODELS
Choi, J., Dotter, A., Conroy, C., Cantiello, M., Paxton, B., & Johnson, B. D. (2016) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/0004-637x/823/2/102 · Cited by 2,922
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- Fuchs, 1998, A&A, 329, 81
- Lindegren, 2018, Re-normalising the astrometric chi-square in Gaia DR2, GAIA-C3-TN-LU-LL-124, 10.1051/0004-6361/201833051 · DOI · Paper page
- Mackereth, 2019, MNRAS
- Sick, 2015, Proc. IAU Symp., 82
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Evidence from the H3 Survey That the Stellar Halo Is Entirely Comprised of Substructure
Naidu, R. P., Conroy, C., Bonaca, A., Johnson, B. D., 丁, Y.-S. 源. T., Caldwell, N., Zaritsky, D., & Cargile, P. A. (2020) · The Astrophysical Journal · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abaef4 · Cited by 449
“We can estimate the mass completeness as follows: if the halo has ∼109 stars (e.g., Deason et al. 2019; Mackereth & Bovy 2020) and we are tracing it with 5684 stars, for every structure with ∼175,000 stars, we find 1 star in the survey (assuming all structures are isotropic and completely mixed—in…”
BackgroundStreams, Substructures, and the Early History of the Milky Way
Helmi, A. (2020) · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-032620-021917 · Cited by 407
The milky way total mass profile as inferred from Gaia DR2
Cautun, M., Benítez-Llambay, A., Deason, A. J., Frenk, C. S., Fattahi, A., Gómez, F. A., Grand, R. J. J., Oman, K. A., Navarro, J. F., & Simpson, C. M. (2020) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/staa1017 · Cited by 332
“The MW also has a stellar halo, but its mass is insignificant, roughly 3 percent of the total Galactic stellar mass (Deason et al. 2019a), and thus we neglect this Galactic component.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationThe Milky Way total mass profile as inferred from Gaia DR2
Cautun, M., Benitez-Llambay, A., Deason, A. J., Frenk, C. S., Fattahi, A., Gómez, F. A., Grand, R. J. J., Oman, K. A., Navarro, J. F., & Simpson, C. M. (2019) · arXiv · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1911.04557 · Cited by 335
“The MW also has a stellar halo, but its mass is insignificant, roughly 3 percent of the total Galactic stellar mass (Deason et al. 2019a), and thus we neglect this Galactic component.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationBelokurov, V. A., Sanders, J. L., Fattahi, A., Smith, M. C., Deason, A. J., Evans, N. W., & Grand, R. J. J. (2020) · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · doi:10.1093/mnras/staa876 · Cited by 296
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Deason, A. J., Belokurov, V., & Sanders, J. L.
- Affiliations
- Durham University (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Deason, Alis J
- Venue
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2019-10-07
- Volume
- 490
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 3426-3439
- ISSN
- 0035-8711 (ISSN-L)
- 1365-2966
- OpenAlex
- W2979777208
- Cited by
- 144
- References
- 91
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 9.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
- Locations
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (publishedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (acceptedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Apollo
- Funders
- Royal Society
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/P000541/1, ST/K00042X/1, ST/H008519/1, ST/K003267/1)
- European Space Agency
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
- Keywords
- Milky Way stellar halo, halo mass, red giant branch stars, metallicity distribution, Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, stellar mass-to-light ratio, Kroupa initial mass function, Gaia DR2
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review