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We study the vertical stellar distribution of the Milky Way thin disk indetail with particular focus on the outer disk. We treat the galactic disk as agravitationally coupled, three-component system consisting of stars, atomichydrogen gas, and molecular hydrogen gas in the gravitational field of the darkmatter halo. The self-consistent vertical distribution for stars and gas insuch a realistic system is obtained for radii between 4-22 kpc. The inclusionof an additional gravitating component constrains the vertical stellardistribution toward the mid-plane, so that the mid-plane density is higher, thedisk thickness is reduced, and the vertical density profile is steeper than inthe one-component, isothermal, stars-alone case. We show that the stellardistribution is constrained mainly by the gravitational field of gas and darkmatter halo in the inner and the outer Galaxy, respectively. We find that thethickness of the stellar disk (measured as the HWHM of the vertical densitydistribution) increases with radius, flaring steeply beyond R=17 kpc. The diskthickness is reduced by a factor of 3-4 in the outer Galaxy as a result of thegravitational field of the halo, which may help the disk resist distortion atlarge radii. The disk would flare even more if the effect of dark matter halowere not taken into account. Thus it is crucially important to include theeffect of the dark matter halo when determining the vertical structure anddynamics of a galactic disk in the outer region.

The constraining effect of gas and the dark matter halo on the vertical stellar distribution of the Milky Way