http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.01517
We show that hypervelocity stars (HVSs) ejected from the center of the Milky Way galaxy can be used to constrain the mass of its halo. The asymmetry in the radial velocity distribution of halo stars due to escaping HVSs depends on the halo potential (escape speed) as long as the round trip orbital time is shorter than the stellar lifetime. Adopting a characteristic HVS travel time of $300$ Myr, which corresponds to the average mass of main sequence HVSs ($3.2$ M$_{\odot}$), we find that current data favors a mass for the Milky Way in the range $(1.2$-$1.7)\times 10^{12} \mathrm{M}_\odot$.
G. Fragione and A. Loeb
Fri, 5 Aug 16
23/46
Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 Table, submitted to MNRAS
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