Abstract

[*] Flattening and kinematics of the galactic halo van der Marel R.P. MNRAS, 248, 515-522, 1991 © 1991. The Royal Astronomical Society. All Rights Reserved. Accepted journal version, no figures (.ps 192 kb) (.ps.gz 55 kb) Scanned paper from ADS (.ps 528 kb) (.ps.gz 424 kb)

[*] Citations to this paper in the ADS

The Jeans equations are used to study the Galactic halo. Relations are derived between the axis ratio q of the metal-poor halo, the axis ratio q_d of the dark halo and the local velocity ellipsoid of metal-poor halo stars. Comparison with observational data implies that: (i) neither models in which the principal axes of the velocity ellipsoid align with cylindrical coordinate axes, nor models in which they align with spherical coordinate axes can be ruled out by the presently available observational data; (ii) if the principal axes of the velocity ellipsoid align with cylindrical coordinate axes, then q < 0.67; (iii) if the metal-poor halo and the dark halo have the same axis ratio, then q = q_d > 0.53; (iv) the axis ratio of the dark halo must satisfy q_d > 0.34.

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Last modified December 8, 1998.
Roeland van der Marel, marel@stsci.edu.
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