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Description
We report the first detection of the intrinsic velocity dispersion of the Arches cluster - a young (~2Myr), massive (10^4^M_{sun}_) starburst cluster located only 26pc in projection from the Galactic center. This was accomplished using proper motion measurements within the central 10"x10" of the cluster, obtained with the laser guide star adaptive optics system at Keck Observatory over a three-year time baseline (2006-2009). This uniform data set results in proper motion measurements that are improved by a factor ~5 over previous measurements from heterogeneous instruments. By careful, simultaneous accounting of the cluster and field contaminant distributions as well as the possible sources of measurement uncertainties, we estimate the internal velocity dispersion to be 0.15+/-0.01mas/yr, which corresponds to 5.4+/-0.4km/s at a distance of 8.4kpc. Collateral benefits of our data and analysis include: (1) cluster membership probabilities, which may be used to extract a clean-cluster sample for future photometric work; (2) a refined estimate of the bulk motion of the Arches cluster with respect to the field, which we find to be 172+/-15km/s, which is slightly slower than suggested by previous measurements using one epoch each with the Very Large Telescope and the Keck telescope; and (3) a velocity dispersion estimate for the field itself, which is likely dominated by the inner Galactic bulge and the nuclear disk.
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