Stellar populations in the Canis Major overdensity

We performed a photometric multicolour survey of the core of the Canis Major overdensity at     , reaching   V ∼ 22  and covering  0.3 × 1.0  arcmin². The main aim is to unravel the complex mixture of stellar populations toward this Galactic direction, where in the recent past important signatures of an accretion event have been claimed to be detected. While our previous investigations were based on disjointed pointings aimed at revealing the large-scale structure of the third Galactic Quadrant, we now focus on a complete coverage of a smaller field centred on the Canis Major overdensity. A large wavelength baseline, in the UBVRI bands, allows us to build up a suite of colour–colour and colour–magnitude diagrams, providing a much better diagnostic tool to disentangle the stellar populations of the region. In fact, the simple use of one colour–magnitude diagram, widely employed in all the previous studies defending the existence of the Canis Major galaxy, does not allow one to separate the effects of the different parameters (reddening, age, metallicity and distance) involved in the interpretation of data, forcing to rely on heavy modelling. In agreement with our previous studies, in the same general region of the Milky Way, we recognize a young stellar population compatible with the expected structure and extension of the Local (Orion) and Outer (Norma–Cygnus) spiral arms in the Third Galactic Quadrant. Moreover, we interpret the conspicuous intermediate-age metal-poor population as belonging to the Galactic thick disc, distorted by the effect of strong disc warping at this latitude, and to the Galactic halo.     

Galactic bulges

We model the evolution of the Galactic bulge and of the bulges of a selected sample of external spiral galaxies, via the multiphase multizone evolution model. We address a few questions concerning the role of the bulges within galactic evolution schemes and the properties of bulge stellar populations. We provide solutions to the problems of chemical abundances and spectral indices, the two main observational constraints to bulge structure.     

The circumnuclear material in the Galactic Centre: a clue to the accretion process

On the basis of 'sticky particle' calculations, it is argued that the gas features observed within 10 pc of the Galactic Centre — the circumnuclear disc (CND) and the ionized gas filaments — as well as the newly formed stars in the inner 1 pc can be understood in terms of tidal capture and disruption of gas clouds on low angular momentum orbits in a potential containing a point mass. The calculations demonstrate that a dissipative component forms a 'dispersion ring', an asymmetric elliptical torus precessing counter to the direction of rotation, and that this shape can be maintained for many orbital periods. For a range of plausible initial conditions, such a structure can explain the morphology and kinematics of the CND and of the most conspicuous ionized filament. While forming the dispersion ring, a small cloud with low specific angular momentum is drawn into a long filament which repeatedly collides with itself at high velocity. The compression in strong shocks is likely to lead to star formation even in the near tidal field of the point mass. This process may have general relevance to accretion on to massive black holes in normal and active galactic nuclei.     

Classical Cepheids in the Galactic outer ring R1R ′2

The kinematics and distribution of classical Cepheids within ∼3 kpc from the Sun suggest the existence of the outer ring R₁R ′₂ in the Galaxy. The optimum value of the solar position angle with respect to the major axis of the bar, θ_b, providing the best agreement between the distribution of Cepheids and model particles, is θ_b = 37° ±13°. The kinematical features obtained for Cepheids with negative galactocentric radial velocity V_R are consistent with the solar location near the descending segment of the outer ring R₂. The sharp rise of extinction toward of the Galactic center can be explained by the presence of the outer ring R₁ near the Sun. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Three-dimensional evolution of worms and chimneys in the Galactic disc

Three-dimensional modelling of the flow of gas and plasma in a section of the Galaxy has been carried out to study the evolution and formation of Galactic chimneys and worms. It is found that clustered supernovae located on either side of the Galactic plane are sources for the formation of well-collimated chimneys, having widths of ∼     . The thick gas disc may have a role in the collimation of chimneys. Channel maps of disc gas, obtained from the simulations, show the presence of sheet-like structures running perpendicular to the Galactic plane and resembling worms. Worms are believed to result from the break-up of the shells and supershells. However, the simulations show that although some worms correlate well with the debris of broken shells/supershells, others do not. They are cold gas that has been accelerated in the disc and rise on to the thick gas disc.     

Galactic structure from the Two Micron Galactic Survey

The Two Micron Galactic Survey (TMGS) is the most sensitive large scale point source near infrared survey of the Galactic Plane yet attempted. The Galactic plane has been drift-scanned in several regions over the areas -5° <l < 30°, |b | 15° and 30° <l < 180°, |b | 5°. The survey is complete in the areas covered to magnitudem _k = +9.8. So far, a total area of 255 square degrees has been mapped and 500000 objects have been detected, the majority of these in the Galactic plane and with no visible counterparts. In this contribution we use data from the TMGS to probe the star distribution within the Galactic disk.     

The asymmetric structure of the Galactic halo

Using the stellar photometry catalogue based on the latest data release (DR4) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a study of the Galactic structure using star counts is carried out for selected areas of the sky. The sample areas are selected along a circle at a Galactic latitude of +60°, and 10 strips of high Galactic latitude along different longitudes. Direct statistics of the data show that the surface densities of ℓ from 180° to 360° are systematically higher than those of ℓ from 0° to 180°, defining a region of overdensity (in the direction of Virgo) and another one of underdensity (in the direction of Ursa Major) with respect to an axisymmetric model. It is shown by comparing the results from star counts in the ( g − r ) colour that the density deviations are due to an asymmetry of the stellar density in the halo. Theoretical models for the surface density profile are built and star counts are performed using a triaxial halo of which the parameters are constrained by observational data. Two possible reasons for the asymmetric structure are discussed.     

The X—ray Background from the Warm Gas of the Galactic Halo

LETTERS1 INTRODUCTIONIn the hierarchical scenario of structure formation, massive dark ha1os fOrm by gravitationalaggregation of individual low-mass objects, whi1e the stel1ar disks of spiral galaxies like theMilky Way form by accretion of gas which cools and falls onto the galaxies from an extendedsurrounding reservoir. FOr a massive galaxy of M ~ 10"MO, the surrounding gas can be heatedto temperature of T ~ 106 K by gravitational1y-driven shocks, the dominant cooling is thus dueto …     

Parametrization of the Galactic structure by two exponentials

We parametrized the total structure of the Galaxy in cylindrical coordinates up to z ∼ 10 kpc by using radial and vertical exponentials, covering the thin and thick disc and the inner spheroid. However, we allowed the scale height and scale length to vary continuously with distance from the Galactic plane. The standard deviations for the differences between stellar space densities estimated by means of the newly defined scale heights and scale lengths and the observed space densities for three absolute magnitude intervals, 5 < M (g ′) ≤ 6, 6 < M (g ′) ≤ 7, and 7 < M (g ′) ≤ 8, of the fields SA 114, ELAIS, and # 0952+5245 are rather small. The uncertainties of the scale heights are also small, indicating that this parameter depends very sensitively on the distance from the Galactic plane, whereas those of the scale lengths are larger. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

New pulsar rotation measures and the Galactic magnetic field

We measured a sample of 150 pulsar rotation measures (RMs) using the 20-cm receiver of the Parkes 64-m radio telescope. 46 of the pulsars in our sample have not had their RM values previously published, whereas 104 pulsar RMs have been revised. We used a novel quadratic fitting algorithm to obtain an accurate RM from the calibrated polarization profiles recorded across 256 MHz of receiver bandwidth. The new data are used in conjunction with previously known dispersion measures and the NE2001 electron-density model to study models of the direction and magnitude of the Galactic magnetic field.