Vertical Phase Mixing across the Galactic Disk

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 911; no. 2; pp. 107 - 133
• Main Author: Li, Zhao-Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 01-04-2021; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Angular momentum; Astrophysics; Clarity; Constraints; Ellipticity; Galactic disk; Milky Way disk; Milky Way dynamics; Milky Way evolution; Milky Way Galaxy; Perturbation; Pitch (inclination); Spectroscopic telescopes; Spirals
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abea17

Abstract
By combining the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope and Gaia data, we investigate the vertical phase mixing across the Galactic disk. Our results confirm the existence of phase space snail shells (or phase spirals) from 6–12 kpc. We find that grouping stars by the guiding radius (
R
g
), instead of the present radius (
R
), further enhances the snail shell signal in the following aspects: (1) clarity of the snail shell shape is increased; (2) more wraps of the snail shell can be seen; (3) the phase spaces are less affected by the lack of stars closer to the disk midplane due to extinction; and (4) the phase space snail shell is amplified in greater radial ranges. Compared to the
R
-based snail shell, the quantitatively measured shapes are similar, except that the
R
g
-based snail shells show more wraps with a better contrast. These lines of evidence lead to the conclusion that the guiding radius (angular momentum) is a fundamental parameter tracing the phase space snail shell across the Galactic disk. Results of our test particle simulations with impulse approximation verify that particles grouped according to
R
g
reveal well-defined and sharper snail shell features. By comparing the radial profiles of the snail shell pitch angle between the observation and simulation, the external perturbation can be constrained to ∼500−700 Myr ago. For future vertical phase mixing study, it is recommended to use the guiding radius with additional constraints on orbital hotness (ellipticity) to improve the clarity of the phase snail.