Laura L. Watkins

The masses of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies

We present a family of robust tracer mass estimators to compute the enclosed mass of galaxy haloes from samples of discrete positional and kinematical data of tracers, such as halo stars, globular clusters and dwarf satellites. The data may be projected positions, distances, lineof-sight velocities or proper motions. The estimators all assume that the tracer population has a scale-free density and moves in a scale-free potential in the region of interest. The circumstances under which the boundary terms can be discarded and the estimator converges are derived. Forms of the estimator tailored for the Milky Way Galaxy and for M31 are given. Monte Carlo simulations are used to quantify the uncertainty as a function of sample size. For the Milky Way Galaxy, the satellite sample consists of 26 galaxies with line-of-sight velocities. We find that the mass of the Milky Way within 300 kpc is M300 = 0.9 ± 0.3 ×

Substructure revealed by RR Lyraes in SDSS Stripe 82

We present an analysis of the substructure revealed by RR Lyraes in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82, which covers 2°5 in declination on the celestial equator over the right ascension range α = 20 h .7 to 3 h .3. We use the new public archive of light-motion curves in Stripe 82, published by Bramich et al. in 2008, to identify a set of high-quality RR Lyrae candidates. Period estimates are determined to high accuracy using a string-length method. A subset of 178 RR Lyraes with spectrally derived metallicities are employed to derive metallicity-period-amplitude relations, which are then used, together with archive magnitude data and light-curve Fourier decomposition, to estimate metallicities and hence distances for the entire sample. The RR Lyraes lie 5-115 kpc from the Galactic Centre, with distance estimates accurate to ∼8 per cent. The RR Lyraes are further divided into subsets of 316 RRab types and 91 RRc types based on their period, colour and metallicity. We fit a smooth density law to the distribution as a simple representation of the data. For Galactocentric radii 5-25 kpc the number density of RR Lyraes falls as r ―2,4 , but beyond 25 kpc, the number density falls much more steeply, as r ―4.5 . However, we stress that in practice the density distribution is not smooth, but dominated by clumps and substructure. Samples of 55 and 237 RR Lyraes associated with the Sagittarius Stream and the Hercules-Aquila Cloud, respectively, are identified. Hence, ∼70 per cent of the RR Lyraes in Stripe 82 belong to known substructure, and the sharp break in the density law reflects the fact that the dominant substructure in Stripe 82 - the Hercules-Aquila Cloud and the Sagittarius Stream -lie within 40 kpc. In fact, almost 60 per cent of all the RR Lyraes in Stripe 82 are associated with the Hercules-Aquila Cloud alone, which emphasizes the clouds pre-eminence. Additionally, evidence of a new and distant substructure - the Pisces Overdensity ― is found, consisting of 28 faint RRLyraes centred on Galactic coordinates (l ≈ 80°, b ≈ -55°), with distances of ∼80 kpc. The total stellar mass in the Pisces Overdensity is ∼10 4 M ⊙ and its metallicity is [Fe/H]∼ ―1.5.

Light and motion in SDSS Stripe 82 : the catalogues

We present a new public archive of light-motion curves in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82, covering 99° in right ascension from a = 20 h 7 to 3 h .3 and spanning 2.°52 in declination from δ = -1°.26 to 1°.26, for a total sky area of ∼249 deg 2 . Stripe 82 has been repeatedly monitored in the u, g, r, i and z bands over a seven-year baseline. Objects are cross-matched between runs, taking into account the effects of any proper motion. The resulting catalogue contains almost 4 million light-motion curves of stellar objects and galaxies. The photometry are recalibrated to correct for varying photometric zero-points, achieving ∼20 and 30 mmag rms accuracy down to 18 mag in the g, r, i and z bands for point sources and extended sources, respectively. The astrometry are recalibrated to correct for inherent systematic errors in the SDSS astrometric solutions, achieving ∼32 and 35 mas rms accuracy down to 18 mag for point sources and extended sources, respectively. For each light-motion curve, 229 photometric and astrometric quantities are derived and stored in a higher level catalogue. On the photometric side, these include mean exponential and point spread function (PSF) magnitudes along with uncertainties, rms scatter, Χ 2 per degree of freedom, various magnitude distribution percentiles, object type (stellar or galaxy), and eclipse, Stetson and Vidrih variability indices. On the astrometric side, these quantities include mean positions, proper motions as well as their uncertainties and Χ 2 per degree of freedom. The light-motion curve catalogue presented here is complete down to r ∼ 21.5 and is at present the deepest large-area photometric and astrometric variability catalogue available.

BIG FISH, LITTLE FISH: TWO NEW ULTRA-FAINT SATELLITES OF THE MILKY WAY

We report the discovery of two new Milky Way satellites in the neighboring constellations of Pisces and Pegasus identified in data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Pisces II, an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy lies at the distance of ~180 kpc, some 15? away from the recently detected Pisces I. Segue 3, an ultra-faint star cluster lies at the distance of 16 kpc. We use deep follow-up imaging obtained with the 4-m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to derive their structural parameters. Pisces II has a half-light radius of ~60 pc, while Segue 3 is 20 times smaller at only 3 pc.

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PROPER MOTION (HSTPROMO) CATALOGS OF GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTERS. I. SAMPLE SELECTION, DATA REDUCTION, AND NGC 7078 RESULTS

We present the first study of high-precision internal proper motions (PMs) in a large sample of globular clusters, based on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data obtained over the past decade with the ACS/WFC, ACS/HRC, and WFC3/UVIS instruments. We determine PMs for over 1.3 million stars in the central regions of 22 clusters, with a median number of ~60,000 stars per cluster. These PMs have the potential to significantly advance our understanding of the internal kinematics of globular clusters by extending past line-of-sight (LOS) velocity measurements to two- or three-dimensional velocities, lower stellar masses, and larger sample sizes. We describe the reduction pipeline that we developed to derive homogeneous PMs from the very heterogeneous archival data. We demonstrate the quality of the measurements through extensive Monte-Carlo simulations. We also discuss the PM errors introduced by various systematic effects, and the techniques that we have developed to correct or remove them to the extent possible. We provide in electronic form the catalog for NGC 7078 (M 15), which consists of 77,837 stars in the central 2.4 arcmin. We validate the catalog by comparison with existing PM measurements and LOS velocities, and use it to study the dependence of the velocity dispersion on radius, stellar magnitude (or mass) along the main sequence, and direction in the plane of the sky (radial/tangential). Subsequent papers in this series will explore a range of applications in globular-cluster science, and will also present the PM catalogs for the other sample clusters.

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PROPER MOTION (HSTPROMO) CATALOGS OF GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTERS. II. KINEMATIC PROFILES AND MAPS

We present kinematical analyses of 22 Galactic globular clusters using the Hubble Space Telescope proper motion catalogs recently presented in Bellini et al. For most clusters, this is the first proper-motion study ever performed, and, for many, this is the most detailed kinematic study of any kind. We use cleaned samples of bright stars to determine binned velocity-dispersion and velocity-anisotropy radial profiles and two-dimensional velocity-dispersion spatial maps. Using these profiles, we search for correlations between cluster kinematics and structural properties. We find the following: (1) more centrally concentrated clusters have steeper radial velocity-dispersion profiles; (2) on average, at 1σ confidence in two dimensions, the photometric and kinematic centers of globular clusters agree to within ∼1″, with a cluster-to-cluster rms of 4″(including observational uncertainties); (3) on average, the cores of globular clusters have isotropic velocity distributions to within 1% (), with a cluster-to-cluster rms of 2% (including observational uncertainties); (4) clusters generally have mildly radially anisotropic velocity distributions (–1.0) near the half-mass–radius, with bigger deviations from isotropy for clusters with longer relaxation times; and (5) there is a relation between and ellipticity, such that the more flattened clusters in the sample tend to be more anisotropic, with –1.0. Aside from these general results and correlations, the profiles and maps presented here can provide a basis for detailed dynamical modeling of individual globular clusters. Given the quality of the data, this is likely to provide new insights into a range of topics concerning globular cluster mass profiles, structure, and dynamics.

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PROPER MOTION (HSTPROMO) CATALOGS OF GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTERS. III. DYNAMICAL DISTANCES AND MASS-TO-LIGHT RATIOs*

We present dynamical distance estimates for 15 Galactic globular clusters and use these to check the consistency of dynamical and photometric distance estimates. For most of the clusters, this is the first dynamical distance estimate ever determined. We extract proper-motion dispersion profiles using cleaned samples of bright stars from the Hubble Space Telescope proper-motion catalogs recently presented in Bellini et al. (2014) and compile a set of line-of-sight velocity-dispersion profiles from a variety of literature sources. Distances are then estimated by fitting spherical, non-rotating, isotropic, constant mass-to-light (M/L) dynamical models to the proper-motion and line-of-sight dispersion profiles together. We compare our dynamical distance estimates with literature photometric estimates from the Harris (1996, 2010 edition) globular cluster catalog and find that the mean fractional difference between the two types is consistent with zero at just

Discrete dynamical models of ω Centauri

-1.9 \pm 1.7 \%

The tilt of the velocity ellipsoid in the Milky Way disc

. This indicates that there are no significant biases in either estimation method and provides an important validation of the stellar-evolution theory that underlies photometric distance estimates. The analysis also estimates dynamical M/L ratios for our clusters; on average, the dynamically-inferred M/L ratios agree with existing stellar-population-based M/L ratios that assume a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF) to within

A census of orbital properties of the M31 satellites

-8.8 \pm 6.4 \%