Determination of the local standard of rest using the LSS-GAC DR1

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 449; no. 1; pp. 162 - 174
• Main Authors: Huang, Y., Liu, X.-W., Yuan, H.-B., Xiang, M.-S., Huo, Z.-Y., Chen, B.-Q., Zhang, Y., Hou, Y.-H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Oxford University Press 01.05.2015
• Subjects: Accretion disks; Accrual basis accounting; Astronomy; Discs; Disks; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Rest; Space telescopes; Stars; Stars & galaxies; Sun; Galaxy: stellar content; Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics; solar neighbourhood; Galaxy: fundamental parameters
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv204

We re-estimate the peculiar velocity of the Sun with respect to the local standard of rest (LSR) using a sample of local stars within 600 pc of the Sun, selected from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, also named the Guoshoujing Telescope) Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anti-centre (LSS-GAC). The sample consists of 94 332 FGK main-sequence stars with well-determined radial velocities and atmospheric parameters. To derive the LSR, two independent analyses are applied to the data. First, we determine the solar motion by comparing the observed velocity distribution to that generated with the analytic formulism of Schönrich & Binney that has been demonstrated to show excellent agreement with rigorous torus-based dynamics modelling by Binney & McMillan. Secondly, we propose that cold populations of thin disc stars, selected by applying an orbital eccentricity cut, can be directly used to determine the LSR without the need of asymmetric drift corrections. Both approaches yield consistent results of solar motion in the direction of Galactic rotation, V ⊙, that are much higher than the standard value adopted hitherto, derived from Strömgren's equation. The newly deduced values of V ⊙ are 1–2 km s−1 smaller than the more recent estimates derived from the Geneva–Copenhagen Survey (GCS) sample of stars in the solar neighbourhood (within 100 pc). We attribute the small difference to the presence of several well-known moving groups in the GCS sample that, fortunately, hardly affect the LSS-GAC sample. The newly derived radial (U ⊙) and vertical (W ⊙) components of the solar motion agree well with the previous studies. In addition, for all components of the solar motion, the values yielded by stars of different spectral types in the LSS-GAC sample are consistent with each other, suggesting that the local disc is well relaxed and that the LSR reported in the current work is robust. Our final recommended LSR is, (U⊙, V⊙, W⊙) = (7.01 ± 0.20, 10.13 ± 0.12, 4.95 ± 0.09) km s−1.