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Description
From analysis of a photometrically selected sample of 175 metal-poor field stars with main sequence gravities (hereafter BMPs) and UBV colors blueward of the most metal-poor globular cluster main-sequence turnoffs, 0.15<(B-V)_0_<0.35, and properties of the candidate lists of the HK objective prism survey, we calculate the space density and a suitably defined specific frequency of BMPs within ~2kpc of the Sun. We consider two cases. If we adopt the luminosities and color distribution of globular cluster blue stragglers (hereafter BS) for BMPs, the BMP space density, is ~350kpc^-3^, from which we obtain a specific frequency S(BMP)~8, a value 9 times larger than that of BSs in globular clusters. From this result, we conclude that cluster-type BSs are but a minor component of the field BMPs and that the remainder must be of a different nature. If we adopt luminosities of metal-poor models halfway between the Zero Age Main Sequence and the phase of core hydrogen exhaustion, we obtain a space density of 450(+300,-150)kpc^-3^ and a specific frequency S(BMP)=10(+5,-3). From a subsample of 107 BMPs with available radial velocities we derive a galactic rotation of 128km/s and an isotropic velocity dispersion of {sigma}~90km/s, values intermediate between those of halo and thick-disk populations. From analysis of a larger sample of stars on 0.15<(B-V)0<0.35 binned by a crude line-blanketing parameter, we find that our results are insensitive to adopted BMP selection criteria: none of these subsamples of A- and early F-type stars above the galactic plane possess disk kinematics. The region of the UBV two-color diagram occupied by BMPs could be populated by metal-deficient, main-sequence gravity stars with ages substantially younger than those of the metal-poor halo. Because we cannot imagine how or where the observed local population of BMPs could have been produced within our galaxy during the past 3 to 10Gyr, we suggest that BMPs are the bluest members of metal-poor intermediate-age main sequences accreted, probably, from dwarf spheroidal satellites of the Milky Way during the past 10Gyr. We discuss observational consequences of this suggestion.
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