Bobylev, Mosenkov, Bajkova & Gontcharov (2014) proposed a new method for selecting stars in the Galactic bar based on 2MASS infrared photometry in combination with stellar proper motions from the Kharkiv XPM catalogue (Fedorov et al. 2009, 2011). They preselected red clump and red giant branch stars based on the color – magnitude diagram (see Fig. 1) and calculated their photometric distances.
Since the stellar proper motions are indicators of a larger velocity dispersion toward the bar and the spiral arms compared to the stars with circular orbits, applying
the constraints on the proper motions of the preselected stars that take into account the Galactic rotation has allowed the background stars to be eliminated. Based on a joint analysis of the velocities of the selected stars and their distribution on the Galactic plane, they confidently identified the segment of the Galactic bar nearest to the Sun with an orientation of 20º–25º with respect to the Galactic center-Sun direction and a semi-major axis of no more than 3 kpc.
