A PINN approach learns galactic gravitational potentials from acceleration data, achieving sub-percent errors on simulations while outperforming analytic models and retaining interpretability via structured priors.
The shape of the inner Milky Way halo from observations of the Pal 5 and GD-1 stellar streams
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abstract
We constrain the shape of the Milky Way's halo by dynamical modeling of the observed phase-space tracks of the Pal 5 and GD-1 tidal streams. We find that the only information about the potential gleaned from the tracks of these streams are precise measurements of the shape of the gravitational potential---the ratio of vertical to radial acceleration---at the location of the streams, with weaker constraints on the radial and vertical accelerations separately. The latter will improve significantly with precise proper-motion measurements from Gaia. We measure that the overall potential flattening is 0.95 +/- 0.04 at the location of GD-1 ([R,z] ~ [12.5,6.7] kpc) and 0.94 +/- 0.05 at the position of Pal 5 ([R,z] ~ [8.4,16.8] kpc). Combined with constraints on the force field near the Galactic disk, we determine that the axis ratio of the dark-matter halo's density distribution is 1.05 +/- 0.14 within the inner 20 kpc, with a hint that the halo becomes more flattened near the edge of this volume. The halo mass within 20 kpc is 1.1 +/- 0.1 x 10^{11} M_sun. A dark-matter halo this close to spherical is in tension with the predictions from numerical simulations of the formation of dark-matter halos.
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UNVERDICTED 2representative citing papers
Test-particle simulations show that Galactic bar pattern speed systematically deflects open-cluster tidal tail orientations, with NGC 2632 and Hyades tails disfavouring moderate speeds.
citing papers explorer
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Reconstructing Galactic Gravitational Potentials from Stellar Kinematics with Physics-Informed Neural Networks
A PINN approach learns galactic gravitational potentials from acceleration data, achieving sub-percent errors on simulations while outperforming analytic models and retaining interpretability via structured priors.
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Bar-induced deflection of open cluster tidal tails
Test-particle simulations show that Galactic bar pattern speed systematically deflects open-cluster tidal tail orientations, with NGC 2632 and Hyades tails disfavouring moderate speeds.