Kinematics of young stars^*

II. Galactic spiral structure

¹ Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
² IEEC (Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), Edif. Nexus-104, Gran Capità 2-4, 08034 Barcelona, Spain

Corresponding author: D. Fernández, dfernand@am.ub.es

Received: 9 February 2001
Accepted: 8 March 2001

Abstract

The young star velocity field is analysed by means of a galactic model which takes into account solar motion, differential galactic rotation and spiral arm kinematics. We use two samples of Hipparcos data, one containing O- and B-type stars and another one composed of Cepheid variable stars. The robustness of our method is tested through careful kinematic simulations. Our results show a galactic rotation curve with a classical value of A Oort constant for the O and B star sample (-13.8 km s^-1 kpc^-1) and a higher value for Cepheids (-16.9 km s^-1 kpc^-1, depending on the cosmic distance scale chosen). The second-order term is found to be small, compatible with a zero value. The study of the residuals shows the need for a K-term up to a heliocentric distance of 4 kpc, obtaining a value (1-3) km s^-1 kpc^-1. The results obtained for the spiral structure from O and B stars and Cepheids show good agreement. The Sun is located relatively near the minimum of the spiral perturbation potential (-20°) and very near the corotation circle. The angular rotation velocity of the spiral pattern was found to be km s^-1 kpc^-1.