The edge of the milky way stellar disk revealed using clump giant stars as distance indicators

‘In these times, during the rise in the popularity of institutional repositories, the Society does not forbid authors from depositing their work in such repositories. However, the AAS regards the deposit of scholarly work in such repositories to be a decision of the individual scholar, as long as the individual's actions respect the diligence of the journals and their reviewers.’ Original article can be found at : http://iopscience.iop.org/ Copyright American Astronomical SocietyWe use the clump giants of the disk as standard candles calibrated from Hipparcos parallaxes in order to map their distribution with two new near-infrared surveys of the Galactic plane: UKIDSS-GPS and VISTA Variables in the Vía Lctea (VVV). We explore different selection cuts of clump giants. We conclude that there is an edge of the stellar disk of the Milky Way at R = 13.9 0.5kpc along various lines of sight across the Galaxy. The effect of the warp is considered, taking fields at different longitudes and above and below the plane. We demonstrate that the edge of the stellar disk of the Milky Way can now be mapped in the near-infrared in order to test different models, and to establish our own place within the Galaxy.Peer reviewe