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Title: Substructure at High Speed. II. The Local Escape Velocity and Milky Way Mass with Gaia eDR3
Abstract

Measuring the escape velocity of the Milky Way is critical in obtaining the mass of the Milky Way, understanding the dark matter velocity distribution, and building the dark matter density profile. In Necib & Lin, we introduced a strategy to robustly measure the escape velocity. Our approach takes into account the presence of kinematic substructures by modeling the tail of the stellar distribution with multiple components, including the stellar halo and the debris flow called the Gaia Sausage (Enceladus). In doing so, we can test the robustness of the escape velocity measurement for different definitions of the “tail” of the velocity distribution and the consistency of the data with different underlying models. In this paper, we apply this method to the Gaia eDR3 data release and find that a model with two components is preferred, although results from a single-component fit are also consistent. Based on a fit to retrograde data with two bound components to account for the relaxed halo and the Gaia Sausage, we find the escape velocity of the Milky Way at the solar position to bevesc=4458+25km s−1. A fit with a single component to the same data givesvesc=47212+17km s−1. more » Assuming a Navarro−Frenck−White dark matter profile, we find a Milky Way concentration ofc200=197+11and a mass ofM200=4.60.8+1.5×1011M, which is considerably lighter than previous measurements.

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Authors:
;
Award ID(s):
2020275
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10363131
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume:
926
Issue:
2
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
Article No. 189
ISSN:
0004-637X
Publisher:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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