Scale height of the thin galactic disk in solar neighborhood

Abstract

Thanks to astrometric data of unprecedented accuracy from Hipparcos Catalogue

(ESA 1997), it becomes possible to investigate, by directly counting stars, the scale height of the thin Galactic disk in solar neighborhood defined by the perpendicular distribution of stellar populations. In order to trace out the evolution of scale height, which is partly a measure of the dynamical evolution of the disk, main sequence (MS) and horizontal branch stars are divided into sub-samples on Hertzsprung-Russell diagram according to color index from Tycho Catalogue (ESA 1997), so that an age sequence is approximately constructed. As dim objects are hardly observed completely, not all the sub-samples meet the requirement of completeness in some distance. Finally, with the completeness checked carefully, reliable results are able to be derived only from O-B type MS and horizontal branch populations, both of which are luminous populations. Scale height defined by O-B type MS sample is 103.1±3.0 pc and mean plane of the thin Galactic disk is 15.2±7.3 pc below the sun while scale height defined by horizontal branch sample is144.0±10.0 pc and midplane of the thin Galactic disk is 3.5±5.4 pc below the sun. Additionally, a method of simulation is developed to obtain quantitative counting error distribution with respect to corresponding observed stellar distribution. Moreover, a model-dependent statistical method to derive qualitative error distribution is presented briefly as well. Qualitative results under the hypothesis of an exponential decay perpendicular distribution prove to be correspondent very well with ultimate quantitative results, which strongly implies the justification of the exponential decay model.