Mapping the Milky Way: Data-miners, Modelers, Observers, Unite!

本文从两个方面对银河系的形成模型和演化模型进行了研究。它继续并扩大了一个利用林肯近地小行星研究（LINEAR）巡天的4，000颗RR型天琴座恒星的光度数据绘制银河系晕结构图的方案。这扩展了当前地图的距离限制，并且可以对晕圈结构进行更好的约束。此外，星系形成的数值模拟进行了比较的观测结果和进一步的数据集，如斯隆数字巡天（SDSS）。这是一个定量的测试，是否宇宙学动机的国家的最先进的N体模型再现所观察到的银河系恒星的空间，运动学和金属丰度分布。 LINEAR光度数据库将向公众开放，并将成为该领域其他研究人员的良好资源。这个项目的一部分将由一名博士生完成。大量的本科生将参与对LINEAR探测到的RR型天琴座恒星的后续观测，并发表结果;这将使他们获得从事研究的实践经验。

This work is about models of Milky Way formation and evolution models in two ways. It continues and expands a program to map the Galactic halo structure using photometric data for 4,000 RR Lyrae stars from the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey. This extends the distance limit of current maps and can place better constraints on halo structure. In addition, numerical simulations of galaxy formation are compared to the observational results and to further data sets such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This is a quantitative test whether cosmologically motivated state-of-the-art N-body models reproduce the observed spatial, kinematic, and metallicity distributions of the Milky Way stars. The LINEAR photometric database will be made publicly available and will be a good resource for other researchers in the field. Some part of this project will be done by a doctoral student. A large number of undergraduate students will be involved in follow-up observations of LINEAR-detected RR Lyrae stars and in publication of the results; which gives them hands-on experience doing research.