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Phys. Rev. D 76, 023505 (2007) [12 pages]

Does the second caustic ring of dark matter cause the Monoceros Ring of stars?

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A. Natarajan1 and P. Sikivie1,2
1Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA
2Theoretical Physics Division, CERN, CH-1211 Genève 23, Switzerland

Received 1 May 2007; published 10 July 2007

Caustic rings of dark matter were predicted to exist in the plane of the Galaxy at radii an≃40  kpc/n for n=1,2,3,…. The recently discovered Monoceros Ring of stars is located near the n=2 caustic, prompting us to consider a possible connection between these two objects. We identify two processes through which the Monoceros Ring of stars may have formed. One process is the migration of gas to an angular velocity minimum at the caustic leading to enhanced star formation there. The other is the adiabatic deformation of star orbits as the caustic slowly grows in mass and radius. The second process predicts an order 100% enhancement of the density of disk stars at the location of the caustic ring.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.76.023505
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.76.023505
PACS:
95.35.+d