On the mass-to-light ratio of the local Galactic disc and the optical luminosity of the Galaxy

2006/08/09 by Chris Flynn, Johan Holmberg, Laura Portinari +5 · 350 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Disc #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Initial mass function #Luminosity #Luminosity function #Mass-to-light ratio #Milky Way #Physics #Solar mass #Star formation #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10911.x

published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 372(3), 1149-1160 (Oxford University Press) · Accepted by MNRAS. 14 pages, 17 figures

arxiv created 2006/08/09 · openalex publication_date 2006/09/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We measure the volume luminosity density and surface luminosity density generated by the Galactic disc, using accurate data on the local luminosity function and the vertical structure of the disc. From the well-measured volume mass density and surface mass density, we derive local volume and surface mass-to-light ratios (M/L) for the Galactic disc, in the bands B, V and I. We obtain M/L for the local column of stellar matter of (M/L)B= 1.4 ± 0.2, (M/L)V= 1.5 ± 0.2 and (M/L)I= 1.2 ± 0.2. The dominant contributors to the surface luminosity in these bands are main-sequence turnoff stars and giants. Our results on the colours and M/L for the ‘solar cylinder’ well agree with population synthesis predictions using initial mass functions typical of the solar neighbourhood. Finally, we infer the global luminosity of the Milky Way, which appears to be underluminous by about 1σ with respect to the main locus of the Tully–Fisher relation, as observed for external galaxies.

Citations

• The Proper Motion of Sagittarius A*. II. The Mass of Sagittarius A*
• The Field of Streams: Sagittarius and Its Siblings
• The structure of spiral galaxies — II. Near-infrared properties of spiral arms
• Vertical distribution of Galactic disk stars

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