Fixing the reference frame for PPMXL proper motions using extragalactic sources

Abstract

We quantify and correct systematic errors in PPMXL proper motions using extragalactic sources from the first two LAMOST data releases and the Vèron-Cetty & Vèron Catalog of Quasars. Although the majority of the sources are from the Vèron catalog, LAMOST makes important contributions in regions that are not well-sampled by previous catalogs, particularly at low Galactic latitudes and in the south Galactic cap. We show that quasars in PPMXL have measurable and significant proper motions, which reflect the systematic zero-point offsets present in the catalog. We confirm the global proper motion shifts seen by Wu et al., and additionally find smaller-scale fluctuations of the QSO-derived corrections to an absolute frame. We average the proper motions of 158 106 extragalactic objects in bins of 3° × 3° and present a table of proper motion corrections.

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