We describe the public ESO near-IR variability survey (VVV) scanning the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane where star formation activity is high. The survey will take 1929 h of observations with the 4-m VISTA telescope during 5 years (2010-2014), covering ˜109 point sources across an area of 520 deg2, including 33 known globular clusters and ˜350 open clusters. The final product will be a deep near-IR atlas in five passbands (0.9-2.5 μm) and a catalogue of more than 106 variable point sources. Unlike single-epoch surveys that, in most cases, only produce 2-D maps, the VVV variable star survey will enable the construction of a 3-D map of the surveyed region using well-understood distance indicators such as RR Lyrae stars, and Cepheids. It will yield important information on the ages of the populations. The observations will be combined with data from MACHO, OGLE, EROS, VST, Spitzer, HST, Chandra, INTEGRAL, WISE, Fermi LAT, XMM-Newton, GAIA and ALMA for a complete understanding of the variable sources in the inner Milky Way. This public survey will provide data available to the whole community and therefore will enable further studies of the history of the Milky Way, its globular cluster evolution, and the population census of the Galactic Bulge and center, as well as the investigations of the star forming regions in the disk. The combined variable star catalogues will have important implications for theoretical investigations of pulsation properties of stars

Abstract.A large-scale three-dimensional model of Galactic extinction is presented based on the Galactic dust distribution model of Drimmel & Spergel (2001). The extinction A V to any point within the Galactic disk can be quickly deduced using a set of three-dimensional Cartesian grids. Extinctions from the model are compared to empirical extinction measures, including lines-of-sight in and near the Galactic plane using optical and NIR extinction measures; in particular we show how extinction can be derived from NIR color-magnitude diagrams in the Galactic plane to a distance of 8 kiloparsec.

Abstract.We have pursued two different methods to analyze the old stellar population near the Galactic plane, using data from the 2MASS survey. The first method is based on the isolation of the red clump giant population in the color-magnitude diagrams and the inversion of its star counts to obtain directly the density distribution along the line of sight. The second method fits the parameters of a disc model to the star counts in 820 regions. Results from both independent methods are consistent with each other. The qualitative conclusions are that the disc is well fitted by an exponential distribution in both the galactocentric distance and height. There is not an abrupt cut-off in the stellar disc (at least within R < 15 kpc). There is a strong flare (i.e. an increase of scale-height towards the outer Galaxy) which begins well inside the solar circle, and hence there is a decrease of the scale-height towards the inner Galaxy. Another notable feature is the existence of a warp in the old stellar population whose amplitude is coincident with the amplitude of the gas warp. It is shown for low latitude stars (mean height: |z| ∼ 300 pc) in the outer disc (galactocentric radius R > 6 kpc) that: the scaleheight in the solar circle is h z (R ) = 3.6 × 10 −2 R , the scale-length of the surface density is h R = 0.42 R and the scale-length of the space density in the plane (i.e. including the effect of the flare) is H = 0.25 R . The variation of the scale-height due to the flare follows roughly a law h z (R) ≈ h z (R ) exp R−R [12−0.6R(kpc)] kpc (for R < ∼ 15 kpc; R = 7.9 kpc). The warp moves the mean position of the disc to a height z w = 1.2 × 10 −3 R(kpc) 5.25 sin(φ + 5 • ) pc (for R < ∼ 13 kpc; R = 7.9 kpc).

We present near-IR colour--magnitude diagrams and star counts for a number of regions along the Galactic plane. It is shown that along the l=27 b=0 line of sight there is a feature at 5.7 +-0.7kpc with a density of stars at least a factor two and probably more than a factor five times that of the disc at the same position. This feature forms a distinct clump on an H vs. J-H diagram and is seen at all longitudes from the bulge to about l=28, but at no longitude greater than this. The distance to the feature at l=20 is about 0.5kpc further than at l=27 and by l=10 it has merged with, or has become, the bulge. Given that at l=27 and l=21 there is also a clustering of very young stars, the only component that can reasonably explain what is seen is a bar with half length of around 4kpc and a position angle of about 43+-7.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures accepted as a letter in MNRA

Recent GLIMPSE data have further confirmed the hypothesis of the existence of an in-plane long bar different from the bulge of the Milky Way with the same characteristics as emphasized some years ago by our team. In this paper, we present two new analyses that corroborate recent and earlier claims concerning the existence in our Galaxy of a long flat bar with approximate dimensions 7.8 kpc ×1.2 kpc ×0.2 kpc and a position angle of approximately 43 • : 1) star counts with 2MASS All-Sky Release and MSX data, which give an excess in the plane region along 0 < l < 30 • compared with −30 • < l < 0, and which cannot be due to the bulge, spiral arms, a ring, or extinction; 2) new data on the distance of the long bar using the red clump method, together with recent observations of our own that are compared with our model, and that are in agreement with the long-bar scenario.

Context. Over the past decade there have been a series of results supporting the hypothesis of the existence of a long thin bar in the Milky Way with a half-length of 4.5 kpc and a position angle of around 45• . This is apparently a very different structure from the triaxial bulge of the Galaxy, which is thicker and shorter and dominates the star counts at |l| < 10• . Aims. In this paper, we analyse the stellar distribution in the inner Galaxy to see if there is clear evidence for two triaxial or bar-like structures in the Milky Way. Methods. By using the red-clump population as a tracer of Galactic structure, we determine the apparent morphology of the inner Galaxy. Deeper and higher spatial-resolution near infrared photometry from the UKIDSS Galactic plane survey allows us to use inplane data even at the innermost Galactic longitudes, a region where the source confusion is a dominant effect that makes it impossible to use other databases, such as 2MASS or TCS-CAIN. Results. We show that results previously obtained with the red-clump giants are confirmed with the in-plane data from UKIDSS GPS. There are two different structures coexisting in the inner Galactic plane: one with a position angle of 23.• 60 ± 2.• 19 that can be traced from the Galactic centre up to ∼10• (the Galactic bulge), and other with a larger position angle of 42.• 44 ± 2.• 14, that ends around l = 28• (the long Galactic bar).

Abstract.A new method is developed to calculate the amplitude of the galactic warps generated by a torque due to external forces. This takes into account that the warp is produced as a reorientation of the different rings which constitute the disc in order to compensate the differential precession generated by the external force, yielding a uniform asymptotic precession for all rings. Application of this method to gravitational tidal forces in the Milky Way due to the Magellanic Clouds leads to a very low amplitude of the warp, as has been inferred in previous studies; so, tidal forces are unlikely to generate warps, at least in the Milky Way. If the force were due to an extragalactic magnetic field, its intensity would have to be very high, greater than 1 µG, to generate the observed warps. An alternative hypothesis is explored: the accretion of the intergalactic medium over the disk. A cup-shaped distortion is expected, due to the transmission of the linear momentum; but, this effect is small and the predominant effect turns out to be the transmission of angular momentum, i.e. a torque giving an integral-sign shape warp. The torque produced by a flow of velocity ∼100 km s −1 and baryon density ∼10 −25 kg/m 3 is enough to generate the observed warps and this mechanism offers quite a plausible explanation. First, because this order of accretion rate is inferred from other processes observed in the Galaxy, notably its chemical evolution. The inferred rate of infall of matter, ∼1 M /yr, to the Galactic disc that this theory predicts agrees with the quantitative predictions of this chemical evolution resolving key issues, notably the G-dwarf problem. Second, the required density of the intergalactic medium is within the range of values compatible with observation. By this mechanism, we can explain the warp phenomenon in terms of intergalactic accretion flows onto the disk of the galaxy.

Abstract.A catalog of optical warps of galaxies is presented. This can be considered complementary to that reported by Sánchez-Saavedra et al. (1990), with 42 galaxies in the northern hemisphere, and to that by Reshetnikov & Combes (1999), with 60 optical warps. The limits of the present catalog are: logr25 > 0.60, B t < 14.5, δ(2000) < 0• , −2.5 < t < 7. Therefore, lenticular galaxies have also been considered. This catalog lists 150 warped galaxies out of a sample of 276 edge-on galaxies and covers the whole southern hemisphere, except the Avoidance Zone. It is therefore very suitable for statistical studies of warps. It also provides a source guide for detailed particular observations. We confirm the large frequency of warped spirals: nearly all galaxies are warped. The frequency and warp angle do not present important differences for the different types of spirals. However, no lenticular warped galaxy has been found within the specified limits. This finding constitutes an important restriction for theoretical models.