The asymmetric drift, the local standard of rest, and implications from RAVE data

¹ Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Mönchhofstr. 12–14, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
e-mail: olexiy.golubov@gmail.com
² Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, 429 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
³ Institute of Astronomy, Kharkiv National University, 35 Sumska Str., 61022 Kharkiv, Ukraine
⁴ Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l’Université, 67000 Strasbourg, France
⁵ Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics A28, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Sydney, Australia
⁶ Dept of Phys & Astro, Saint Marys Univ, Halifax, B3H 3C3, Canada
⁷ Monash Centre for Astrophysics, 3800 Clayton, Australia
⁸ Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, UCLan, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK
⁹ NAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, 36012 Asiago, Italy
¹⁰ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada
¹¹ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Macquarie University, NSW, 2109 Sydney, Australia
¹² Macquarie Research Centre for Astronomy, Astrophysics and Astrophotonics, 2109 Sydney, Australia
¹³ Australian Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping, NSW 2121 Sydney, Australia
¹⁴ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, RH5 6NT, UK
¹⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Padova University, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 2, 35122 Padova, Italy
¹⁶ Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
¹⁷ Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana, Jadranska 19, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
¹⁸ Center of Excellence SPACE-SI, Askerceva cesta 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Received: 25 March 2013
Accepted: 27 June 2013

Abstract

Context. The determination of the local standard of rest (LSR), which corresponds to the measurement of the peculiar motion of the Sun based on the derivation of the asymmetric drift of stellar populations, is still a matter of debate. The classical value of the tangential peculiar motion of the Sun with respect to the LSR was challenged in recent years, claiming a significantly larger value.

Aims. We present an improved Jeans analysis, which allows a better interpretation of the measured kinematics of stellar populations in the Milky Way disc. We show that the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) sample of dwarf stars is an excellent data set to derive tighter boundary conditions to chemodynamical evolution models of the extended solar neighbourhood.

Methods. We propose an improved version of the Strömberg relation with the radial scalelengths as the only unknown. We redetermine the asymmetric drift and the LSR for dwarf stars based on RAVE data. Additionally, we discuss the impact of adopting a different LSR value on the individual scalelengths of the subpopulations.

Results. Binning RAVE stars in metallicity reveals a bigger asymmetric drift (corresponding to a smaller radial scalelength) for more metal-rich populations. With the standard assumption of velocity-dispersion independent radial scalelengths in each metallicity bin, we redetermine the LSR. The new Strömberg equation yields a joint LSR value of V_⊙ = 3.06 ± 0.68 km s^-1, which is even smaller than the classical value based on Hipparcos data. The corresponding radial scalelength increases from 1.6 kpc for the metal-rich bin to 2.9 kpc for the metal-poor bin, with a trend of an even larger scalelength for young metal-poor stars. When adopting the recent Schönrich value of V_⊙ = 12.24 km s^-1 for the LSR, the new Strömberg equation yields much larger individual radial scalelengths of the RAVE subpopulations, which seem unphysical in part.

Conclusions. The new Strömberg equation allows a cleaner interpretation of the kinematic data of disc stars in terms of radial scalelengths. Lifting the LSR value by a few km s^-1 compared to the classical value results in strongly increased radial scalelengths with a trend of smaller values for larger velocity dispersions.