Stellar population studies with the SDSS. I. The vertical distribution of stars in the Milky Way

We present star count data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey for 5.8 x 10(5) stars brighter than g' = 21 mag over 279 deg(2) in two samples north and south of the Galactic plane. Using these high-latitude (49 degrees < \b\ < 64 degrees) star counts we determine the Sun's distance from the Galactic midplane to be 27 +/- 4 pc and the scale height of the old thin disk to be 330 +/- 3 pc. Because of the photometric accuracy and large area sky coverage of these data, the color-magnitude diagram clearly reveals a significant thick-disk population distinct in color from a Galactic halo population. The position of the thick-disk turnoff is at g'-r' similar to 0.33. Several questions about the existence of the thick disk and its origin are addressed through a set of model fits to the star count data. Our best-fit model gives a thick-disk scale height between 580 and 750 pc, below the original proposal of Gilmore and Reid, and the corresponding space number density normalization is 13%-6.5% of the thin disk. The conclusions reached in this paper favor a scenario in which the thick disk formed through the heating of a preexisting thin disk, with the heating mechanism being the merging of a satellite galaxy. The density law for the Galactic halo population is also investigated. We find that the data support a flattened halo with c/a similar to 0.55 +/- 0.06 and a relatively flat power-law index (2.5 +/- 0.3). The axis ratio of the visible halo found in this paper is compatible with that of dark halo, suggesting that they have the same shape and dynamical origin.