χ ² as a function of initial eccentricity of simulated disk stars. For each e ₀ tested, χ ² was calculated by comparing the resulting normalized eccentricity distribution to that of the observed candidate disk stars separately for the accelerating (filled points) and non-accelerating (unfilled points) stars (we assume all errors are unity). Based on a Gaussian fit to these data, χ ² is minimized at e ₀ = 0.27 for accelerating (solid curve) and e ₀ = 0.23 for non-accelerating (dashed curve) stars.