Unraveling the formation history of the Galaxy with RAVE

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Matthias Steinmetz
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Astrophysik und Astronomie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2005 bis 2012
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 5448647

• Erstellungsjahr: 2012

Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse

The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) is a spectroscopic high latitude survey of the Milky Way with the major aim at disentangling the formation history of the Milky Way. The RAVE survey focuses on target is the magnitude range 9 < I < 13, the wavelength range between 8410 and 8795 A˚ at an average resolution of R=7500. Data for the RAVE survey were collected between April 2003 and December 2012. The SPP project contributed considerably to the data collection and analysis of RAVE. By May 2012, some 530,000 spectra for 450,000 individual targets have been amassed, making RAVE the largest spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way performed to date. Data products of RAVE have been published in several data releases and include radial velocities, stellar parameters, distances and abundances of up to seven chemical elements (Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, and Ni). Science applications of RAVE include the dynamical structure of the nearby Galactic disk, the dynamical and chemical separation of the main galactic components – thin disk, thick disk and halo – and the age-metallicity and age-metallicity-velocity relation in the solar neighbourhood. Furthermore the project resulted in the discovery of a new tidal stream (Aquarius stream). Modelling of the stream properties indicates that the Aquarius stream is dynamically very young. It is the closest tidal stream discovered to date. The project was complemented by a simulation campaign that aimed at creating realistic models of the Milky Way galaxy in cosmological simulations. Considerable progress was made to that respect by using advanced feedback models. One application of these models was to investigate whether the population of hyper-velocity stars can be accounted for by the tidal disruption of an infalling dwarf galaxy.

Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)

• (2006): The Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): First Data Release. In: AJ 132 (4), S. 1645–1668.
  Steinmetz, M., Zwitter, T., Siebert, A., et al.
  
• (2008). The radial velocity experiment (RAVE): second data release. The Astronomical Journal, 136(1), 421
  Zwitter, T., Siebert, A., Munari, U., et al.
  
• (2008): Estimation of the tilt of the stellar velocity ellipsoid from RAVE and implications for mass models. In: Mon Not R Astron Soc 391 (2), S. 793–801
  Siebert, A., Bienaymé, O., Binney, J. et al.
  
• (2008): Is the sky falling? Searching for stellar streams in the local Milky Way disc in the CORAVEL and RAVE surveys. In: Mon Not R Astron Soc 384 (1), S. 11–32
  Seabroke, G. M., Gilmore, G., Siebert, A., et al.
  
• (2008): The Milky Way’s Circular Velocity Curve to 60 kpc and an Estimate of the Dark Matter Halo Mass from the Kinematics of ∼2400 SDSS Blue Horizontal‐Branch Stars. In: ApJ 684 (2), S. 1143–1158
  Xue, X. X., Rix, H. W., Zhao, G., et al.
  
• (2010): Galaxies and Their Masks. A Conference in Honour of K. C. Freeman, FRS. New York, NY: Springer New York
  Anguiano, B., Freeman, K. C., Steinmetz, M., de Boer, E. W.
  
• (2011). The Dawning of the Stream of Aquarius in RAVE. The Astrophysical Journal, 728(2), 102
  Williams, M.E.K., Steinmetz, M., Sharma, S., et al.
  
• (2011). The radial velocity experiment (RAVE): third data release. The Astronomical Journal, 141(6), 187
  Siebert, A., Williams, M. E. K., Siviero, A., et al.
  
• (2011). The RAVE catalog of stellar elemental abundances: first data release. The Astronomical Journal, 142(6), 193
  Boeche, C.; Siebert, A.; Williams, M.; Jong, R. S. de; Steinmetz, M.; Fulbright, J. P.; Ruchti, G. R.; Bienaymé, O.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Campbell, R.; Freeman, K. C.; Gibson, B. K.; Gilmore, G.; Grebel, E. K.; Helmi, A.; Munari, U.; Navarro, J. F.; Parker, Q. A.; Reid, W.; Seabroke, G. M.; Siviero, A.; Watson, F. G.; Wyse, R. F. G.; Zwitter, T.
  
• (2011): Effects of distant large-scale structure on the precision of weak lensing mass measurements. In: Mon Not R Astron Soc 412 (3), S. 2095–2103
  Navarro, J. F., Abadi, M.G., Venn, K.A., Freeman, K. C.; Anguiano, B.
  
• (2011): Kinematics in galactic tidal tails. In: A&A 535, A70
  Piffl, T.; Williams, M.; Steinmetz, M.
  
• 2011, MNRAS 410, 2623
  Piontek, F. & Steinmetz, M.
  
• 2012, The kinematical evolution of the Galactic disk. In: Assembling the Puzzle of the Milky Way, Le Grand-Bornand, France, Edited by C. Reylé; A. Robin; M. Schultheis; EPJ Web of Conferences, Volume 19, id. 05009, 19, 5009
  Anguiano, B., Freeman, K., Steinmetz, M., de Boer, E. W.