First APOGEE Results on Galactic Bulge Kinematics

Nidever, David L.; Allende-Prieto, C.; Bizyaev, D.; Frinchaboy, P. M.; Garcia Perez, A. E.; Holtzman, J.; Majewski, S. R.; Schiavon, R.; Skrutskie, M. F.; Zasowski, G.
Bibliographical reference

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #410.06

Advertised on:
1
2012
Number of authors
10
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The SDSS-III Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) will obtain high resolution (R 22,500) and high S/N ( 100 per pixel) H-band spectra of 100,000 giant stars in the Milky Way disk, bulge and halo to study the chemical and kinematical evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy. APOGEE will be able to probe deep into regions of our galaxy that were previously hidden by a thick veil of dust. I will present first APOGEE results on the Galactic bulge kinematics using commissioning data in 18 fields. Our reduction pipeline currently delivers radial velocites with accuracies of 0.2 km/s for the majority of our target stars. These RVs are used to derive accurate rotation curves and velocity dispersion profiles for our bulge fields, many of them in regions not previously probed. We compare our results to other surveys and to N-body models and confirm that the bulge is dominated by a bar to large longitudes. We also find the first evidence for kinematical substructure in our bulge fields.