Available Spiral Arm Models

The following table provides a summary of the spiral arm models included in SpiralMap.

Model

Description

Taylor_Cordes_1992

Model based on HII regions

Drimmel_NIR_2000

Based on Galactic plane emission in N

Levine_2006

Based on HI (21 cm) data

Hou_Han_2014

Logarithmic spiral using HII/GMC/Maser data

Reid_2019

MASER parallax model

Poggio_cont_2021

Map based on Upper Main Sequence stars

GaiaPVP_cont_2022

OB star map from Gaia Collaboration

Drimmel_Ceph_2024

Based on Cepheid variables

Taylor_Cordes_1992

  • Class implementing the model from Taylor & Cordes et al. 1993 which is based on radio and optical observations of H II regions.

  • We use the model parameters presented in their Table 1.

  • There are four arms in this model (Arm1, Arm2, Arm3, Arm4).

Drimmel_NIR_2000

  • Class implementing the model from Drimmel 2000, which is based on Galactic plane emission profiles in the K band using COBE data.

  • Model publicly available.

  • There are two arms (1_arm, 2_arm) and two inter-arm regions (3_interarm, 4_interarm) in this model.

Levine_2006

  • Class implementing the logarithmic spiral framework as described in Levine et al. 2006 based on HI observations.

  • Model taken from their Table 1.

  • There are four arms in this model (Arm1, Arm2, Arm3, Arm4).

Hou_Han_2014

  • Class built upon the polynomial-logarithmic formulation introduced by Hou et al. 2014, based on a combination of H II, giant molecular clouds, and methanol MASER catalogs.

  • Model publicly available.

  • There are six arms in this model (Arm1, Arm2, Arm3, Arm4, Arm5, Arm6).

Reid_2019

  • Class implementing the model by Reid et al. 2019 based on radio astrometry of MASERS.

  • Model taken from their Table 2.

  • There are seven arms in this model (3-kpc, Norma, Sct-Cen, Sgr-Car, Local, Perseus, Outer).

Poggio_cont_2021

  • Class used to extract the 2D contour maps of upper-main sequence stars by Poggio et al. 2021. The maps are based on Gaia EDR3 astrometry.

  • Data is available publicly, and also included in the package with their permission.

GaiaPVP_cont_2022

  • Class used to extract the 2D contour maps of OB stars by Gaia collaboration et al. 2022. The maps are based on Gaia DR3 astrometry & astrophysical parameters.

  • Data is available publicly, and also included in the package with their permission.

Drimmel_Ceph_2024

  • This class implements the model by Drimmel et al. 2024. It is based on a sample of 2857 dynamically young Milky Way Cepheids.

  • Model is publicly available but also included in the package as a userfriendly pickle file, with their permission.

  • There are four arms in this model (Scutum, Sag-Car, Orion, Perseus).