Phase

Wrapping of Epicyclic
Perturba6ons in the Wobbly Galaxy

31 July 2015
Advisor: Alice Quillen
Alexander de la Vega, Johns Hopkins University

 Introduc6on - I

Recent surveys in solar neighbourhood show mean velocity gradients

Typically <Vi> 5 15 km s-1
Show wavelike paUerns of compression and rarefac6on
Vary with height away from Galac6c mid-plane

Williams et al. (2013)

Carlin et al. (2013)

Introduc6on - II
Gradients thought to arise from self-gravita6ng oscilla6ons in the disc
Known as bending (L) and breathing (R) modes

Weinberg (2001)

Widrow et al. (2014) apply the following linear t for ver6cal veloci6es:

AZ = breathing, BZ = bending
Sun et al. (2015) conrm breathing and bending modes near Sun
-15 < AZ < 2 km s-1 kpc-1, -5 < BZ < 15 km s-1

A slight problem

Breathing and bending mode theory has only been worked out in 1D (Z)
Theory is a liUle complicated read Weinberg (1991) if you dare
Bending modes predict distance between <Z> maxima 10 kpc at R
N-body simula6ons show much smaller distance
Is there another, perhaps simpler, explana6on?
Epicyclic Phase Wrapping, perhaps?

Theory - Epicycles

Originally developed by Apollonius and Hipparchus c. 200 B.C.E.

Most galaxies look like discs, so we use an axisymmetric galac6c poten6al
Implies that the Lagrangian has cylindrical coordinates (R, , Z)
Most stars on nearly circular orbits 1st order approx. is to use epicycles:

Rg = guiding radius, ar, az = amplitudes, = epicyclic (or radial) freq., = ver6cal freq., r, z = phases

In X, Y

In R, Z

Theory Epicyclic Phase Wrapping (EPW)

Perturbing a region of stars could cause them to all have same epicyclic
phase
Over 6me the same region would see a large spread in phase angles
Due to and dependence on R, Lz, eccentricity & inclina6on
Quillen et al. (2009) nd this also leads to spirals and warps in the disc
Could EPW also cause velocity gradients?
If so, how do we perturb the disc?

hUp://astro.pas.rochester.edu/~aquillen/mytalks/yale.pptx

Quillen et al. (2009)

SagiUarius Dwarf Galaxy (SagD)

Discovered by Ibata et al. (1994)
Currently 28 kpc from Sun
Purcell et al. (2011) claim encounter with SagD led to spiral arms
o Used masses 1010.5, 1011 M in N-body simula6ons
o Last pericentre 0.8 Gyr ago, at distance of 15 kpc

Widrow et al. (2014) N-body with 6 109 M satellite passing through

disc
o Supposedly excites bending and breathing modes
o Find velocity gradients

Methods
Populate disc with 107 stars:
o Uniformly distributed radii, azimuths and epicyclic phases and amplitudes
o Ini6al radial and ver6cal dispersion from Nordstrm et al. (2004)

We consider two encounters with SagD:

o E2: 2.2 Gyr ago, through the disc, with Md = 5 1010 M
o E1: 1.1 Gyr ago, above the disc, with Md = 2.5 1010 M

Instantaneously perturb stars with hyperbolic orbit approx.:

o Done separately for each encounter
o Prop. to SagD mass, inversely prop. to SagD velocity

Integrate to present day in xed poten6al

o Used python test-par6cle suite galpy (Bovy 2015)
o Test-par6cles are MASSLESS (ergo no self-gravity)
o Study eects from EPW in isola6on

Ini6al Condi6ons at 6me of Encounter

For the E2 encounter:
o Epicyclic phases o by for <VR> and <VZ>

For the E1 encounter:

o Nearly homogeneous <VZ>, some phase disparity by for <VR>

A{er Integra6on E2

Resul6ng structure is smeared due to phase wrapping over 2.2 Gyr

A lot of mixing as ini6al veloci6es out of phase with each other by
Magnitude of gradients reduced

A{er Integra6on E1

Structure very similar to Gmez et al. (2013) N-body with SagD passage
Gradients of similar magnitude to observed values!
More wrapped in <VR> due to ini6al phase discrepancies
Seems to excite bending and breathing modes but theres no self-gravity!

Gradients E1

Williams et al. (2013)

Observed (L) and E1 (R) gradients

Couldnt nd region that exactly matched all observed gradients near Sun
Rota6on period at R is 0.2 Gyr; o by 0.1 Gyr with SagD, o by in azimuth

Dynamical Interpreta6on

Perturbed stars shear azimuthally and radially

For E1, nearly all perturbed stars have same Z, so they shear ver6cally
Unperturbed stars shear azimuthally at same rate; remain outside of
perturbed region
When perturbed stars mix with unperturbed stars, we get gradients!
Dierence in ini6al <VR>, <V> produces two popula6ons of perturbed stars
Can mix with each other and with unperturbed stars; 2x oscilla6ons

Caveats
Now that weve all converted to EPW, there are some issues you should know
Breathing and bending mode theory has only been done in 1D
o Things could change if expanded to 3D

Test-par6cles are massless, so no dynamical fric6on

o If ini6al SagD mass heavy enough, it could aect orbit (Purcell et al. 2011)

Galaxy could have been recently perturbed by an as yet uniden6ed dwarf

o Chakrabar6 & Blitz (2009)

Uncertainty in 6me and posi6on of last SagD pericentre

o Could have been 0.8 1.1 Gyr ago, at distance of 15 20 kpc from Galac6c Centre

Hyperbolic orbit approx. could overes6mate energy transfer to disc

o DOnghia et al. (2010)
o Disc response and 6me dependence of encounter not taken into account

We neglect spiral structure that would vary oscilla6on frequencies

Whats next?

Dra{ submiUed to arXiv & MNRAS! Check out hUp://arxiv.org/abs/1507.07489

If accepted, need to make changes according to referee
Well make our own changes in the meanwhile
Future simula6ons should take into account 6me dependence of encounter
Compare N-body and test-par6cle simula6ons for breathing/bending modes
Improved simula6ons and observa6ons could constrain SagD mass & orbit

References
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Milky Way
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SagiUarius dwarf galaxy
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hUp://arxiv.org/abs/1505.08060v1
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