George Gontcharov

Pulkovo Compilation of Radial Velocities for 35 495 Hipparcos Stars in aC ommon System

The Pulkovo Compilation of Radial Velocities (PCRV) has been made to study the stellar kinematics in the local spiral arm. The PCRV contains weighted mean absolute radial velocities for 35 495 Hipparcos stars of various spectral types and luminosity classes over the entire celestial sphere mainly within 500 pc of the Sun. The median accuracy of the radial velocities obtained is 0.7 km s−1. Results from 203 publications were used in the catalogue. Four of them were used to improve the radial velocities of standard stars from the IAU list. The radial velocities of 155 standard stars turned out to be constant within 0.3 km s−1. These stars were used to analyze 47 768 mean radial velocities for 37 200 stars from 12 major publications (∼80% of all the data used). Zero-point discrepancies and systematic dependences on radial velocity, B-V color index, right ascension, and declination were found in radial velocity differences of the form “publication minus IAU list of standards.” These discrepancies and dependences were approximated and taken into account when calculating the weighted mean radial velocities. 1128 stars whose independent radial-velocity determinations were available at least in three of these publications and agreed within 3 km s−1 were chosen as the work list of secondary standards. Radial-velocity differences of the form “publication minus list of secondary standards” were used by analogy to correct the zero points and systematic dependences in the radial velocities from 33 more publications (∼ 13% of the data used). In addition, the radial velocities from 154 minor publications (∼7% of the data used) pertaining to well-known instruments were used without any corrections.

Red giant clump in the Tycho-2 catalogue

The Tycho-2 proper motions and Tycho-2 and 2MASS photometry are used to select 97348 red giant clump (RGC) stars. The interstellar extinction and photometric distance are calculated for each of the stars. The selected stars are shown to form a selection-unbiased sample of RGC stars within about 350 pc of the Sun with the addition of more distant stars. The distribution of the selected stars in space and their motion are consistent with the assumption that the RGC contains Galactic disk stars with various ages and metallicities, including a significant fraction of stars younger than 1 Gyr with masses of more than 2M⊙. These young stars show differences of their statistical characteristics from those of older RGC stars, including differences in the variations of their distribution density with distance from the Galactic plane and in the dispersion of their velocities found using radial velocities and proper motions. The Sun has been found to rise above the Galactic plane by 13 ± 1 pc. The distribution density of the stars under consideration in space is probably determined by the Local Spiral Arm and the distribution of absorbing matter in the plane of the Gould Belt.

3D interstellar extinction map within the nearest kiloparsec

The product of the previously constructed 3D maps of stellar reddening (Gontcharov 2010) and Rv variations (Gontcharov 2012) has allowed us to produce a 3D interstellar extinction map within the nearest kiloparsec from the Sun with a spatial resolution of 50 pc and an accuracy of {ie87-1}. Thismap is compared with the 2D reddening map by Schlegel et al. (1998), the 3D extinction map at high latitudes by Jones et al. (2011), and the analytical extinctionmodels by Arenou et al. (1992) and Gontcharov (2009). In all cases, we have found good agreement and show that there are no systematic errors in the new map everywhere except the direction toward the Galactic center. We have found that the map by Schlegel et al. (1998) reaches saturation near the Galactic equator at E(B - V) > 0.8, has a zero-point error and systematic errors gradually increasing with reddening, and among the analytical models those that take into account the extinction in the Gould Belt are more accurate. Our extinction map shows that it is determined by reddening variations at low latitudes and Rv variations at high ones. This naturally explains the contradictory data on the correlation or anticorrelation between reddening and Rv available in the literature. There is a correlation in a thin layer near the Galactic equator, because both reddening and Rv here increase toward the Galactic center. There is an anticorrelation outside this layer, because higher values of Rv correspond to lower reddening at high and middle latitudes. Systematic differences in sizes and other properties of the dust grains in different parts of the Galaxy manifest themselves in this way. The largest structures within the nearest kiloparsec, including the Local Bubble, the Gould Belt, the Great Tunnel, the Scorpius, Perseus, Orion, and other complexes, have manifested themselves in the constructed map.

Variations of the interstellar extinction law within the nearest kiloparsec

Multicolor photometry from the Tycho-2 and 2MASS catalogues for 11 990 OB and 30 671 K-type red giant branch stars is used to detect systematic large-scale variations of the interstellar extinction law within the nearest kiloparsec. The characteristic of the extinction law, the total-to-selective extinction ratio Rv, which also characterizes the size and other properties of interstellar dust grains, has been calculated for various regions of space by the extinction law extrapolation method. The results for the two classes of stars agree: the standard deviation of the “red giants minus OB” Rv differences within 500 pc of the Sun is 0.2. The detected Rv variations between 2.2 and 4.4 not only manifest themselves in individual clouds but also span the entire space near the Sun, following Galactic structures. In the Local Bubble within about 100 pc of the Sun, Rv has a minimum. In the inner part of the Gould Belt and at high Galactic latitudes, at a distance of about 150 pc from the Sun, Rv reaches a maximum and then decreases to its minimum in the outer part of the Belt and other directions at a distance of about 500 pc from the Sun, returning to its mean values far from the Sun. The detected maximum of Rv at high Galactic latitudes is important when allowance is made for the interstellar extinction toward extragalactic objects. In addition, a monotonic increase in Rv by 0.3 per kpc toward the Galactic center has been found near the Galactic equator. It is consistent with the result obtained by Zasowski et al. (2009) for much of the Galaxy. Ignoring the Rv variations and traditionally using a single value for the entire space must lead to systematic errors in the calculated distances reaching 10%.

Candidate subdwarfs and white dwarfs from the 2MASS, Tycho-2, XPM and UCAC3 catalogues

Photometry from the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), United States Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC3) and SuperCosmos catalogues, together with proper motions from the Tycho-2, Kharkiv Proper Motions (XPM) and UCAC3 catalogues, is used to select all-sky samples of 28 candidate white dwarfs, 1826 evolved and 7641 unevolved subdwarfs for R from 9–17 mag. The samples are separated from main-sequence stars with an admixture of less than 10 per cent, owing to an analysis of the distribution of the stars in colour index versus reduced proper-motion diagrams for various latitudes using related Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that the XPM and UCAC3 catalogues have the same level of proper-motion accuracy. Most of the selected stars have at least six-band photometry. This allows us to eliminate some admixtures and reveal some binaries. Empirical calibrations of absolute magnitude versus colour index and reduced proper motion for Hipparcos stars give us distances and a three-dimensional (3D) distribution for all the selected stars. It is shown that the subdwarf samples are almost complete for the Tycho-2 stars, i.e. to 11 mag or 150 pc from the Sun. For fainter stars from the XPM and UCAC3 catalogues, the subdwarf samples are complete only to 20–60 per cent because of the selection method and incompleteness of the catalogues. Some conclusions can be made, however, especially for Tycho-2 stars with known radial velocities and metallicities. The subdwarfs show some concentration in the Galactic Centre hemisphere, with voids due to extinction in the Gould belt and the Galactic plane. Some as yet unexplained overdensities of evolved subdwarfs are seen in several parts of the sky. For 176 stars with radial velocities, the 3D motion and Galactic orbits are calculated. For 57 stars with Fe/H we find relations of the metallicity with colour index, asymmetric drift velocity and orbital eccentricity. All the data are consistent with the suggestion that most unevolved subdwarfs belong to the low-metallicity halo with large asymmetric drift, whereas evolved subdwarfs have various metallicities and velocities and include both disc and halo stars. The lower limit of the local mass density of unevolved subdwarfs, estimated as 2 × (1)

Influence of the gould belt on interstellar extinction

A new analytical 3D model of interstellar extinction within 500 pc of the Sun as a function of the Galactic spherical coordinates is suggested. This model is physically more justified than the widely used Arenou model, since it takes into account the presence of absorbing matter both in the layer along the equatorial Galactic plane and in the Gould Belt. The extinction in the equatorial layer varies as the sine of the Galactic longitude and in the Gould Belt as the sine of twice the longitude in the Belt plane. The extinction across the layers varies according to a barometric law. It has been found that the absorbing layers intersect at an angle of 17° and that the Sun is located near the axial plane of the absorbing layer of the Gould Belt and is probably several parsecs below the axial plane of the equatorial absorbing layer but above the Galactic plane. The model has been tested using the extinction of real stars from three catalogs.

The Red Giant Branch in the Tycho-2 Catalogue

Based on multicolor photometry from the 2MASS and Tycho-2 catalogues, we have produced a sample of 38 368 branch red giants that has less than 1% of admixtures and is complete within 500 pc of the Sun. The sample includes 30 671 K giants, 7544Mgiants, 49 C giants, and 104 suspected supergiants or S stars. The photometric distances have been calculated for K, M, and C stars with an accuracy of 40%. Tycho-2 proper motions and PCRV radial velocities are used to analyze the stellar kinematics. The decrease in the stellar distribution density with distance from the Galactic equator approximated by the barometric law, contrary to the Besanconmodel of the Galaxy, and the kinematic parameters calculated using the Ogorodnikov-Milne model characterize the overwhelming majority of the selected K and M giants as disk stars with ages of more than 3 Gyr. A small number of K and M giants are extremely young or, conversely, thick-disk ones. The latter show a nonuniform distribution in the phase space of coordinates and velocities, arguing against isothermality and full relaxation of the disk and for the theory of dynamical streams or superclusters. The spatial distribution and kinematics of the selected C stars force us to consider them as asymptotic branch giants with masses of more than 2M⊙ and ages of less than 2 Gyr probably associated with the Gould Belt. The offset of the Sun above the Galactic equator has been found from the distribution of stars to be 13 ± 2 pc, which coincides with the previously obtained value for the clump red giants.

Three-dimensional reddening map for stars from 2MASS photometry: The method and the first results

The first results of the construction of a three-dimensional reddening map for stars within 1600 pc of the Sun are presented. Analysis of the distribution of 70 million stars from the 2MASS catalog with the most accurate photometry on the (J-Ks)-Ks diagram supplemented with Monte Carlo simulations has shown that one of the maxima of this distribution corresponds to F-type dwarfs and subgiants with a mean absolute magnitude MKs = 2⊙m5. The shift of this maximum toward large J-Ks with increasing Ks reflects the reddening of these stars with increasing heliocentric distance. The distribution of the sample of stars over Ks, l, and b cells with a statistically significant number of stars in each cell corresponds to their distribution over three-dimensional spatial cells. As a result, the reddening E(J-Ks) has been determined with an accuracy of 0·m03 for spatial cells with a side of 100 pc. All of the known large absorbing clouds within 1600 pc of the Sun have manifested themselves in the results obtained. The distances to the near and far edges of the clouds have been determined with a relative accuracy of 15%. The cases where unknown clouds are hidden behind known ones on the same line of sight have been found. The distance dependence of reddening is considered for various Galactic latitudes and longitudes. The absorbing matter of the Gould Belt is shown to manifest itself at latitudes up to 40° and within 600 pc of the Sun. The size and influence of the Gould Belt may have been underestimated thus far. The absorbing matter at latitudes up to 60° and within 1600 pc of the Sun has been found to be distributed predominantly in the first and second quadrants in the southern hemisphere and in the third and fourth quadrants in the northern hemisphere. The warping of the absorbing layer in the near Galaxy apparently manifests itself in this way. A nonrandom orientation of the clouds relative to the Sun is possible. The mass of the baryonic dark matter in solar neighborhoods can then be considerably larger than is generally believed.

Dependence of Kinematics on the Age of Stars in the Solar Neighborhood

The variations of kinematic parameters with age are considered for a sample of 15 402 thin-disk O-F stars with accurate α, δ, µ, and π > 3 mas from the Hipparcos catalogue and radial velocities from the PCRV catalogue. The ages have been calculated from the positions of the stars on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram relative to the isochrones from the Padova database by taking into account the extinction from the previously constructed 3D analytical model and extinction coefficient RV from the 3D map of its variations. Smooth, mutually reconciled variations of the velocity dispersions σ(U), σ(V), σ(W), solar motion components U⊙, V⊙, W⊙, Ogorodnikov-Milne model parameters, Oort constants, and vertex deviation lxy consistent with all of the extraneous results for which the stellar ages were determined have been found. The velocity dispersion variations are well fitted by power laws the deviations from which are explained by the influence of predominantly radial stellar streams: Sirius, Hyades, α Cet/Wolf 630, and Hercules. The accuracy of determining the solar motion relative to the local standard of rest is shown to be fundamentally limited due to these variations of stellar kinematics. The deviations of our results from those of Dehnen and Binney (1998), the Geneva-Copenhagen survey of dwarfs, and the Besan con model of the Galaxy are explained by the use of PCRV radial velocities with corrected systematic errors.

Extinction law at a distance up to 25 kpc toward the Galactic poles

Photometry from the Tycho-2, 2MASS, andWISE catalogues for clump and branch giants at a distance up to 25 kpc toward the Galactic poles has allowed the variations of various characteristics of the infrared interstellar extinction law with distance to be analyzed. The results obtained by the extinction law extrapolation method are consistent for different classes of stars and different characteristics as well as with previous studies. The conventional extinction law with a low infrared extinction is characteristic of only a thin layer no farther than 100 pc from the Galactic plane and of two thin layers near Z = −600 and +500 pc. Far from the Galactic plane, in the Galactic halo, the infrared extinction law is different: the extinction in the Ks, W1, W2, W3, and W4 bands is, respectively, 0.17, 0.16, 0.16, 0.07, and 0.03 of the extinction in the V band. The accuracy of these coefficients is 0.03. If the extinction law reflects primarily the grain size distribution, then the fraction of large dust grains far from the Galactic plane is greater than that in the circumsolar interstellar medium.