Mapping the Galactic halo with blue horizontal branch stars from the two-degree field quasar Redshift Survey

Abstract

We use 666 blue horizontal branch stars from the 2Qz Redshift Survey to map the Galactic halo in four dimensions (position, distance, and velocity). We find that the halo extends to at least 100 kpc in Galactocentric distance, and obeys a single power-law density profile of index ∼ - 2.5 in two different directions separated by about 150° on the sky. This suggests that the halo is spherical. Our map shows no large kinematically coherent structures (streams, clouds, or plumes) and appears homogeneous. However, we find that at least 20% of the stars in the halo reside in substructures and that these substructures are dynamically young. The velocity dispersion profile of the halo appears to increase toward large radii while the stellar velocity distribution is non-Gaussian beyond 60 kpc. We argue that the outer halo consists of a multitude of low luminosity overlapping tidal streams from recently accreted objects. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society.