TY - JOUR
T1 - Candidate Hypervelocity Red Clump Stars in the Galactic Bulge Found Using the VVV and Gaia Surveys
AU - Luna, Alonso
AU - Minniti, Dante
AU - Alonso-García, Javier
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..
PY - 2019/12/20
Y1 - 2019/12/20
N2 - We propose a new way to search for hypervelocity stars (HVS) in the Galactic bulge, by using red clump (RC) giants, that are good distance indicators. The second Gaia Data Release and the near-IR data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) Survey led to the selection of a volume limited sample of 34 bulge RC stars. A search in this combined data set leads to the discovery of seven candidate hypervelocity red clump stars in the Milky Way bulge. Based on this search we estimate the total production rate of hypervelocity RC stars from the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) to be N HVRC = 3.26 × 10-4 yr-1. This opens up the possibility of finding larger samples of HVS in the Galactic bulge using future surveys, closer to their main production site, if they originated from interactions of binaries with the central SMBH.
AB - We propose a new way to search for hypervelocity stars (HVS) in the Galactic bulge, by using red clump (RC) giants, that are good distance indicators. The second Gaia Data Release and the near-IR data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) Survey led to the selection of a volume limited sample of 34 bulge RC stars. A search in this combined data set leads to the discovery of seven candidate hypervelocity red clump stars in the Milky Way bulge. Based on this search we estimate the total production rate of hypervelocity RC stars from the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) to be N HVRC = 3.26 × 10-4 yr-1. This opens up the possibility of finding larger samples of HVS in the Galactic bulge using future surveys, closer to their main production site, if they originated from interactions of binaries with the central SMBH.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077657564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/ab5c27
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/ab5c27
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85077657564
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 887
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 2
M1 - L39
ER -