A study of the spatial evolution of the Radcliffe wave in a sample of young open star clusters
Vadim V. Bobylev, Anisa T. Bajkova, Nazar R. Ikhsanov
TLDR
This study models young star clusters to reveal the Radcliffe wave's spatial and kinematic evolution, finding persistent vertical perturbations.
Key contributions
- Modeled 139 young star clusters to track Radcliffe wave evolution over 60 million years.
- Confirmed Radcliffe wave's characteristic XY distribution and vertical wave-like motion for the past 10-15 Myr.
- Discovered persistent vertical perturbations up to 200 pc, extending back 30 million years.
- This new evidence questions the Parker instability as the initial cause of the Radcliffe wave.
Why it matters
This paper offers crucial insights into the Radcliffe wave's long-term evolution and origin. Its discovery of persistent vertical perturbations challenges the prevailing Parker instability theory for large-scale interstellar medium disturbances, refining our understanding of galactic structure formation.
Original Abstract
A sample of 139 young open star clusters closely associated with the Radcliffe wave is considered. Modeling their spatial distribution and kinematics over a time interval of 30 Myrs ago and 30 Myrs into the future revealed that they exhibit the main properties characteristic of a Radcliffe wave over the past 10-15 Myr. They are distributed on the galactic XY plane as a long and narrow chain inclined to the Y axis, and exhibit a wave-like behavior of their vertical coordinates up to 15 Myr in the past. This behavior of their vertical coordinates will persist over the interval of 15-20 Myr in the future. A new finding is the presence of vertical perturbations with an amplitude of deviation from the galactic symmetry plane of up to 200 pc over the entire time interval considered in the past, up to -30 Myr. This result calls into question the possibility of using a scenario in which the initial disturbance of the interstellar medium is assumed to be the Parker instability of the galactic magnetic field.
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