Description
To distinguish halo stars from stars in the thin and thick disk, the velocities of the stars are often used, such as applying a cutoff to the Toomre velocity. Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) are also used to model the contributions from the three components. However, a Toomre velocity cutoff is somewhat rudimentary, and the GMMs assume that the velocity distributions of all three components are Gaussian for all three velocities. In reality, the azimuthal velocities ($v_\phi$) of disk stars can be better fit by a skewed distribution. Using Gaia DR3, we model the velocity distribution of stars in and beyond the Solar neighbourhood using a mixture model that describes this characteristic better and enables a more accurate selection of halo stars. We will use this sample to identify substructures in the halo throughout the Galaxy possibly associated to merger debris.
| Talk category | NOVA Network 1 |
|---|---|
| Preference for a talk or poster | Poster |
