A guided map to the spiral arms in the galactic disk of the Milky Way

Abstract

An up-to-date overview of the recent history is given, aiming is to present a helpful working guide to the literature and at the same time introduce key systems and observational results, starting from the Sun and going toward the Galactic Center and parts of the Zona Galactica Incognita, and beyond. We start by presenting an observational view of the Milky Way’s disk plane (cartographic, dynamical, chemical cross-cut, magnetic). This included the four long spiral arms in the disk of the Milky Way galaxy, their geometry, components, velocity, their widths and internal layers as well as onion-like ordered offsets, the central galactic bars, arm tangents, arm pitch and arm shape, arm origins near the Galactic Center, and other possible players in the spiral arm, such as the magnetic field and the dark matter content. After, we present a basic analysis of some theoretical predictions from galactic arm formation: numerical simulations or analytical theories, and observations are checked against predictions from various numerical simulations and analytical (theoretical) models.

Keywords:

• Galaxy: disk
• galaxy: structure
• galaxy: spiral arms
• galaxy: fundamental parameters
• galaxy: kinematics and dynamics
• galaxy: formation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This work was supported by TARE-2017-J98W.

Acknowledgments

The figure production made use of the PGPLOT software at the NRC Canada’s Herzberg A&A in Victoria, BC. I thank two anonymous referees for useful, careful, and historical suggestions.