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Burton's Curse: The Impact of Bulk Flows on the Galactic Longitude-Velocity Diagram and the Illusion of a Continuous Perseus Arm
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- In this work we demonstrate that the Perseus Arm is not a continuous structure of molecular gas in the second quadrant. We first show that the observed, distanced-resolved velocity structure of the Galaxy in the outer disk is capable of creating illusory spiral arms, as was first proposed by Burton (1971). Second, we measure the distances to a collection of CO clouds at velocities consistent with the Perseus arm with $135^\circ < l < 160^\circ$. We find these distances using 3D dust maps from Green et al. (2019). We determine that these molecular cloud do not preferentially lie at the distance of a purported Perseus arm, but rather extend over 3 kpc in distance, with some evidence for a closer, high pitch angle structure between 1 and 1.5 kpc away. Finally, we demonstrate that velocity perturbations of the amplitude found near the Perseus arm can wreak havoc on our interpretation of the longitude-velocity diagram for more than half of the Milky Way disk.<br />Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal
- Subjects :
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.2112.07677
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac3f34