A SPATIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE SAGITTARIUS DWARF GALAXY TIDAL TAILS

We measure the spatial density of F turnoff stars in the Sagittarius dwarf tidal stream, from Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, using statistical photometric parallax. We find a set of continuous, consistent parameters that describe the leading Sgr stream's position, direction, and width for 15 st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astronomical journal 2013-06, Vol.145 (6), p.1-19
Main Authors: Newby, Matthew, Cole, Nathan, Newberg, Heidi Jo, DESELL, TRAVIS, Magdon-Ismail, Malik, Szymanski, Boleslaw, Varela, Carlos, Willett, Benjamin, YANNY, BRIAN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
AXIAL SYMMETRY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
Computer simulation
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DATA ANALYSIS
DENSITY
DWARF STARS
GALAXIES
Halos
Mathematical models
Parallax
Platforms
SKY
STARS
STREAMS
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Summary:We measure the spatial density of F turnoff stars in the Sagittarius dwarf tidal stream, from Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, using statistical photometric parallax. We find a set of continuous, consistent parameters that describe the leading Sgr stream's position, direction, and width for 15 stripes in the north Galactic cap, and three stripes in the south Galactic cap. We produce a catalog of stars that has the density characteristics of the dominant leading Sgr tidal stream that can be compared with simulations. We find that the width of the leading (north) tidal tail is consistent with recent triaxial and axisymmetric halo model simulations. We explore the possibility that one or more of the dominant Sgr streams has been misidentified, and that one or more of the "bifurcated" pieces is the real Sgr tidal tail, but we do not reach definite conclusions. Finally, we verify that we can reproduce the parameter fits on the asynchronous MilkyWay[at]home volunteer computing platform.
ISSN:0004-6256
1538-3881
1538-3881
DOI:10.1088/0004-6256/145/6/163