PS1 RRab stars for tracing outer Virgo overdensity

These features are clearly visible in a high-fidelity stellar halo map that is based on RR Lyrae from Pan-STARRS1: there is a plume of stars 10kpc beyond the apocenter of the leading arm, and there is a "spur" extending to 130kpc, almost 30kpc beyond the previously detected apocenter of the trailing arm.

Such an apocenter substructure is qualitatively expected in any Sgr stream model, as stars stripped from the progenitor at different pericenter passages become spatially separated there. The morphology of these new Sgr stream substructures could provide much-needed new clues and constraints for modeling the Sgr system, including the level of dynamical friction that Sgr has experienced. We also report the discovery of a new, presumably unrelated halo substructure at 80kpc from the Sun and 10{deg} from the Sgr orbital plane, which we dub the outer Virgo overdensity.