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# The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE): Third Data Release

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(Impact Factor: 4.05). 05/2011; 141(6):187. DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/141/6/187

ABSTRACT We present the third data release of the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE)
which is the first milestone of the RAVE project, releasing the full pilot
survey. The catalog contains 83,072 radial velocity measurements for 77,461
stars in the southern celestial hemisphere, as well as stellar parameters for
39,833 stars. This paper describes the content of the new release, the new
processing pipeline, as well as an updated calibration for the metallicity
based upon the observation of additional standard stars. Spectra will be made
available in a future release. The data release can be accessed via the RAVE
webpage: http://www.rave-survey.org.

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• ##### Article: Conditions of consistency for multicomponent stellar systems II. Is a point-axial symmetric model suitable for the Galaxy?
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ABSTRACT: Under a common potential, a finite mixture of ellipsoidal velocity distributions satisfying the Boltzmann collisionless equation provides a set of integrability conditions that may constrain the population kinematics. They are referred to as conditions of consistency and were discussed in a previous paper on mixtures of axisymmetric populations. As a corollary, these conditions are now extended to point-axial symmetry, that is, point symmetry around the rotation axis or bisymmetry, by determining which potentials are connected with a more flexible superposition of stellar populations. Under point-axial symmetry, the potential is still axisymmetric, but the velocity and mass distributions are not necessarily. A point-axial stellar system is, in a natural way, consistent with a flat velocity distribution of a disc population. Therefore, no additional integrability conditions are required to solve the Boltzmann collisionless equation for such a population. For other populations, if the potential is additively separable in cylindrical coordinates, the populations are not kinematically constrained, although under point-axial symmetry, the potential is reduced to the harmonic function, which, for the Galaxy, is proven to be non-realistic. In contrast, a non-separable potential provides additional conditions of consistency. When mean velocities for the populations are unconstrained, the potential becomes quasi-stationary, being a particular case of the axisymmetric model. Then, the radial and vertical mean velocities of the populations can differ and produce an apparent vertex deviation of the whole velocity distribution. However, single population velocity ellipsoids still have no vertex deviation in the Galactic plane and no tilt in their intersection with a meridional Galactic plane. If the thick disc and halo ellipsoids actually have non-vanishing tilt, as the surveys of the solar neighbourhood that include RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) data seem to show, the point-axial model is unable to fit the local velocity distribution. Conversely, the axisymmetric model is capable of making a better approach. If, in the end, more accurate data confirm a negligible tilt of the populations, then the point-axisymmetric model will be able to describe non-axisymmetric mass and velocity distributions, although in the Galactic plane the velocity distribution will still be axisymmetric.
Astronomy and Astrophysics 07/2014; 567(A46):1. DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201423813 · 4.48 Impact Factor
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##### Article: APASS Landolt-Sloan BVgri photometry of RAVE stars. I. Data, effective temperatures and reddenings
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ABSTRACT: We provide APASS photometry in the Landolt BV and Sloan g'r'i' bands for all the 425,743 stars included in the latest 4th RAVE Data Release. The internal accuracy of the APASS photometry of RAVE stars, expressed as error of the mean of data obtained and separately calibrated over a median of 4 distinct observing epochs and distributed between 2009 and 2013, is 0.013, 0.012, 0.012, 0.014 and 0.021 mag for B, V, g', r' and i' band, respectively. The equally high external accuracy of APASS photometry has been verified on secondary Landolt and Sloan photometric standard stars not involved in the APASS calibration process, and on a large body of literature data on field and cluster stars, confirming the absence of offsets and trends. Compared with the Carlsberg Meridian Catalog (CMC-15), APASS astrometry of RAVE stars is accurate to a median value of 0.098 arcsec. Brightness distribution functions for the RAVE stars have been derived in all bands. APASS photometry of RAVE stars, augmented by 2MASS JHK infrared data, has been chi2 fitted to a densely populated synthetic photometric library designed to widely explore in temperature, surface gravity, metallicity and reddening. Resulting Teff and E(B-V), computed over a range of options, are provided and discussed, and will be kept updated in response to future APASS and RAVE data releases. In the process it is found that the reddening caused by an homogeneous slab of dust, extending for 140 pc on either side of the Galactic plane and responsible for E(B-V,poles)=0.036 +/- 0.002 at the galactic poles, is a suitable approximation of the actual reddening encountered at Galactic latitudes |b|>=25 deg.
The Astronomical Journal 08/2014; 148(5). DOI:10.1088/0004-6256/148/5/81 · 4.05 Impact Factor
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##### Article: Characterizing the High-Velocity Stars of RAVE: The Discovery of a Metal-Rich Halo Star Born in the Galactic Disk
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ABSTRACT: We aim to characterize high-velocity (HiVel) stars in the solar vicinity both chemically and kinematically using the fourth data release of the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE). We used a sample of 57 HiVel stars with Galactic rest-frame velocities larger than 275 km s$^{-1}$. With 6D position and velocity information, we integrated the orbits of the HiVel stars and found that, on average, they reach out to 13 kpc from the Galactic plane and have relatively eccentric orbits consistent with the Galactic halo. Using the stellar parameters and [$\alpha$/Fe] estimates from RAVE, we found the metallicity distribution of the HiVel stars peak at [M/H] = -1.2 dex and is chemically consistent with the inner halo. There are a few notable exceptions that include a hypervelocity star (HVS) candidate, an extremely high-velocity bound halo star, and one star that is kinematically consistent with the halo but chemically consistent with the disk. High-resolution spectra were obtained for the metal-rich HiVel star candidate and the second highest velocity star in the sample. Using these high-resolution data, we report the discovery of a metal-rich halo star that has likely been dynamically ejected into the halo from the Galactic thick disk. This discovery could aid in explaining the assembly of the most metal-rich component of the Galactic halo.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 12/2014; 447(2). DOI:10.1093/mnras/stu2574 · 5.23 Impact Factor