The Kinematics of the Radcliffe Wave

Ralf Konietzka

Wednesday, Dec. 7th, 09:20CET

The Radcliffe Wave is a 2.7 kpc long sinusoidal arrangement of dense gas in the solar neighborhood, recently discovered via 3D dust mapping. Using 12CO spectral observations, velocities along the line-of-sight can be obtained for each part of the structure. Moreover, stellar clusters provide precise 3D velocities of the young stellar component along the wave. In this talk, I will focus on the theoretical modeling of the Radcliffe Wave kinematics, explaining how the motion of the gas structure can be derived from its current line-of-sight velocity spectrum. Combining these results with the 3D stellar cluster velocities, I will show that the Radcliffe Wave is kinematically oscillating through the Galactic plane and shows evidence of an in plane drift away from the solar system. Based on that, I will conclude with a discussion of possible wave formation processes.