The local Galactic escape speed

Statistical techniques for estimating the local Galactic escape speed from a uniform sample of high-velocity stars are presented for the cases of exact and uncertain observations. The former case is appropriate for high-precision radial velocities, and the latter for tangential and space velocities, which are usually derived from uncertain distances and proper motions. These two techniques have been applied to the Carney-Latham sample of high-velocity stars. It is found that the sample is too small to estimate the escape speed precisely without prior knowledge of the form of the high-velocity distribution.