Constraining the potential of the Milky Way using stellar streams and the Inverse Time Integration method

ABSTRACT We develop a method for constraining the potential of the Milky Way using stellar streams with a known progenitor. The method expresses the stream in angle-action coordinates and integrates the orbits of the stars backwards in time to obtain the stripping point positions of the stream stars relative to the cluster. In the potential that generated the stream, the stars return approximately to the cluster centre. In a different potential, they are redirected to different locations. The free parameters of the model are estimated by maximizing the degree of clustering of the stripping point distribution. We test this method with the stellar stream of the globular cluster M68 (NGC 4590). We use an N-body code to simulate the stream and generate a realistic star sample using a model of the Gaia selection function. We also simulate the expected observational uncertainties, and estimate the heliocentric distances and radial velocities of the stream stars from the cluster orbit. Using this sample of stars, we recover the values of four free parameters characterizing the potential of the disc and the dark halo to an accuracy of about 8 per cent of the correct values. We show that this accuracy is improved up to about 2 per cent using the expected end-of-mission Gaia data. In addition, we obtain a strong correlation between the mass of the disc and the dark halo axis ratio, which is explained by the fact that the stream flows close and parallel to the disc plane.