THE POWER SPECTRUM OF THE MILKY WAY: VELOCITY FLUCTUATIONS IN THE GALACTIC DISK
We investigate the kinematics of stars in the mid-plane of the Milky Way (MW) on scales between 25 pc and 10 kpc with data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), and the Geneva-Copenhagen survey (GCS). Using red-clump (RC) stars in APOGEE, we determine the large-scale line-of-sight velocity field out to 5 kpc from the Sun in (0.75 kpc)2 bins. The solar motion V☉ − c with respect to the circular velocity Vc is the largest contribution to the power on large scales after subtracting an axisymmetric rotation field; we determine the solar motion by minimizing the large-scale power to be V☉ − c = 24 ± 1 (ran.) ± 2 (syst. [Vc]) ± 5 (syst.[large-scale]) km s−1, where the systematic uncertainty is due to (1) a conservative 20 km s−1 uncertainty in Vc and (2) the estimated power on unobserved larger scales. Combining the APOGEE peculiar-velocity field with RC stars in RAVE out to 2 kpc from the Sun and with local GCS stars, we determine the power spectrum of residual velocity fluctuations in the MW's disk on scales between 0.2 kpc−1 ⩽ k ⩽ 40 kpc−1. Most of the power is contained in a broad peak between 0.2 kpc−1 < k < 0.9 kpc−1. We investigate the expected power spectrum for various non-axisymmetric perturbations and demonstrate that the central bar with commonly used parameters but of relatively high mass can explain the bulk of velocity fluctuations in the plane of the Galactic disk near the Sun. Streaming motions ≈10 km s−1 on ≳ 3 kpc scales in the MW are in good agreement with observations of external galaxies and directly explain why local determinations of the solar motion are inconsistent with global measurements.