- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/141/131
- Title:
- Mapping the asymmetric thick disk. III.
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/141/131
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In the first two papers of this series, Larsen et al. (1996ApJ...468L..99L) describe our faint CCD survey in the inner Galaxy and map the overdensity of thick disk stars in Quadrant 1 (Q1) to 5kpc or more along the line of sight. The regions showing the strongest excess are above the density contours of the bar in the Galactic disk. In this third paper on the asymmetric thick disk, we report on radial velocities and derived metallicity parameters for over 4000 stars in Q1, above and below the plane, and in Quadrant 4 (Q4) above the plane.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/781/40
- Title:
- Metal-poor stars from HES survey. II. Spectroscopy
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/781/40
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We report on the discovery of seven low-metallicity stars selected from the Hamburg/ESO Survey, six of which are extremely metal-poor (EMP, [Fe/H]{<=}-3.0), with four having [Fe/H]{<=}-3.5. Chemical abundances or upper limits are derived for these stars based on high-resolution (R~35000) Magellan/MIKE spectroscopy, and are in general agreement with those of other very and extremely metal-poor stars reported in the literature. Accurate metallicities and abundance patterns for stars in this metallicity range are of particular importance for studies of the shape of the metallicity distribution function of the Milky Way's halo system, in particular for probing the nature of its low-metallicity tail. In addition, taking into account suggested evolutionary mixing effects, we find that six of the program stars (with [Fe/H]{<=}-3.35) possess atmospheres that were likely originally enriched in carbon, relative to iron, during their main-sequence phases. These stars do not exhibit overabundances of their s-process elements, and hence may be, within the error bars, additional examples of the so-called CEMP-no class of objects.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/882/27
- Title:
- Metal-poor stars with APF obs. II. MW halo stars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/882/27
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In this work, we study the chemical compositions and kinematic properties of six metal-poor stars with [Fe/H]{<}-2.5 in the Galactic halo. From high-resolution (R~110000) spectroscopic observations obtained with the Lick/Automated Planet Finder, we determined individual abundances for up to 23 elements, to quantitatively evaluate our sample. We identify two carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars (J1630+0953 and J2216+0246) without enhancement in neutron-capture elements (CEMP-no stars), while the rest of our sample stars are carbon-intermediate. By comparing the light-element abundances of the CEMP stars with predicted yields from nonrotating zero-metallicity massive-star models, we find that the possible progenitors of J1630+0953 and J2216+0246 could be in the 13-25M_{sun}_ mass range, with explosion energies (0.3-1.8)x10^51^erg. In addition, the detectable abundance ratios of light and heavy elements suggest that our sample stars are likely formed from a well-mixed gas cloud, which is consistent with previous studies. We also present a kinematic analysis, which suggests that most of our program stars likely belong to the inner-halo population, with orbits passing as close as ~2.9kpc from the Galactic center. We discuss the implications of these results on the critical constraints on the origin and evolution of CEMP stars, as well as the nature of the Population III progenitors of the lowest-metallicity stars in our Galaxy.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/493/5195
- Title:
- Milky Way halo stars ages and kinematics
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/493/5195
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We exploit the [Mg/Mn]-[Al/Fe] chemical abundance plane to help identify nearby halo stars in the 14th data release from the APOGEE survey that have been accreted on to the Milky Way. Applying a Gaussian Mixture Model, we find a 'blob' of 856 likely accreted stars, with a low disc contamination rate of about 7 percent. Cross-matching the sample with the second data release from Gaia gives us access to parallaxes and apparent magnitudes, which place constraints on distances and intrinsic luminosities. Using a Bayesian isochrone pipeline, this enables us to estimate new ages for the accreted stars, with typical uncertainties of 20 percent. Our new catalogue is further supplemented with estimates of orbital parameters. The blob stars span a metallicities between -0.5 to -2.5, and [Mg/Fe] between -0.1 to 0.5. They constitute 30 percent of the metal-poor ([Fe/H]<-0.8) halo at metallicities of -1.4. Our new ages are mainly range between 8 to 13Gyr, with the oldest stars the metal-poorest, and with the highest [Mg/Fe] abundance. If the blob stars are assumed to belong to a single progenitor, the ages imply that the system merged with our Milky Way around 8 Gyr ago and that star formation proceeded for 5Gyr. Dynamical arguments suggest that such a single progenitor would have a total mass of 10^11^M_{sun}_, similar to that found by other authors using chemical evolution models and simulations. Comparing the scatter in the [Mg/Fe]-[Fe/H] plane of the blob stars to that measured for stars belonging to the Large Magellanic Cloud suggests that the blob does indeed contain stars from only one progenitor.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/751/55
- Title:
- MMT hypervelocity star survey. II.
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/751/55
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the discovery of five new unbound hypervelocity stars (HVSs) in the outer Milky Way halo. Using a conservative estimate of Galactic escape velocity, our targeted spectroscopic survey has now identified 16 unbound HVSs as well as a comparable number of HVSs ejected on bound trajectories. A Galactic center origin for the HVSs is supported by their unbound velocities, the observed number of unbound stars, their stellar nature, their ejection time distribution, and their Galactic latitude and longitude distribution. Other proposed origins for the unbound HVSs, such as runaway ejections from the disk or dwarf galaxy tidal debris, cannot be reconciled with the observations. An intriguing result is the spatial anisotropy of HVSs on the sky, which possibly reflects an anisotropic potential in the central 10-100pc region of the Galaxy. Further progress requires measurement of the spatial distribution of HVSs over the southern sky. Our survey also identifies seven B supergiants associated with known star-forming galaxies; the absence of B supergiants elsewhere in the survey implies there are no new star-forming galaxies in our survey footprint to a depth of 1-2Mpc.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/762/26
- Title:
- Most metal-poor stars. II. 190 Galactic halo stars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/762/26
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a homogeneous chemical abundance analysis of 16 elements in 190 metal-poor Galactic halo stars (38 program and 152 literature objects). The sample includes 171 stars with [Fe/H]<=-2.5, of which 86 are extremely metal poor, [Fe/H]<=-3.0. Our program stars include 10 new objects with [Fe/H]<=-3.5. We identify a sample of "normal" metal-poor stars and measure the trends between [X/Fe] and [Fe/H], as well as the dispersion about the mean trend for this sample. Using this mean trend, we identify objects that are chemically peculiar relative to "normal" stars at the same metallicity. These chemically unusual stars include CEMP-no objects, one star with high [Si/Fe], another with high [Ba/Sr], and one with unusually low [X/Fe] for all elements heavier than Na. The Sr and Ba abundances indicate that there may be two nucleosynthetic processes at lowest metallicity that are distinct from the main r-process. Finally, for many elements, we find a significant trend between [X/Fe] versus T_eff_, which likely reflects non-LTE and/or three-dimensional effects. Such trends demonstrate that care must be exercised when using abundance measurements in metal-poor stars to constrain chemical evolution and/or nucleosynthesis predictions.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/762/27
- Title:
- Most metal-poor stars. III. 86 [Fe/H]<=-3.0 stars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/762/27
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We examine the metallicity distribution function (MDF) and fraction of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars in a sample that includes 86 stars with [Fe/H]<=-3.0, based on high-resolution, high signal-to-noise spectroscopy, of which some 32 objects lie below [Fe/H]=-3.5. After accounting for the completeness function, the "corrected" MDF does not exhibit the sudden drop at [Fe/H]=-3.6 that was found in recent samples of dwarfs and giants from the Hamburg/ESO survey. Rather, the MDF decreases smoothly down to [Fe/H]=-4.1. Similar results are obtained from the "raw" MDF. We find that the fraction of CEMP objects below [Fe/H]=-3.0 is 23%+/-6% and 32%+/-8% when adopting the Beers & Christlieb (2005ARA&A..43..531B) and Aoki et al. (2007, J/ApJ/655/492) CEMP definitions, respectively. The former value is in fair agreement with some previous measurements, which adopt the Beers & Christlieb criterion.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/749/77
- Title:
- MW halo. III. Statistical chemical abundances
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/749/77
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We find that the relative contribution of satellite galaxies accreted at high redshift to the stellar population of the Milky Way's smooth halo increases with distance, becoming observable relative to the classical smooth halo about 15 kpc from the Galactic center. In particular, we determine line-of-sight-averaged [Fe/H] and [{alpha}/Fe] in the metal-poor main-sequence turnoff (MPMSTO) population along every Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) spectroscopic line of sight. Restricting our sample to those lines of sight along which we do not detect elements of cold halo substructure (ECHOS), we compile the largest spectroscopic sample of stars in the smooth component of the halo ever observed in situ beyond 10 kpc. We find significant spatial autocorrelation in [Fe/H] in the MPMSTO population in the distant half of our sample beyond about 15 kpc from the Galactic center. Inside of 15 kpc however, we find no significant spatial autocorrelation in [Fe/H]. At the same time, we perform SEGUE-like observations of N-body simulations of Milky Way analog formation. While we find that halos formed entirely by accreted satellite galaxies provide a poor match to our observations of the halo within 15 kpc of the Galactic center, we do observe spatial autocorrelation in [Fe/H] in the simulations at larger distances. This observation is an example of statistical chemical tagging and indicates that spatial autocorrelation in metallicity is a generic feature of stellar halos formed from accreted satellite galaxies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/784/19
- Title:
- Orphan stream high-resolution spectroscopic study
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/784/19
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the first high-resolution spectroscopic study on the Orphan stream for five stream candidates, observed with the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle spectrograph on the Magellan Clay telescope. The targets were selected from the low-resolution catalog of Casey et al. (2013ApJ...764...39C): three high-probability members, one medium, and one low-probability stream candidate were observed. Our analysis indicates that the low- and medium-probability targets are metal-rich field stars. The remaining three high-probability targets range over ~1 dex in metallicity, and are chemically distinct compared to the other two targets and all standard stars: low [{alpha}/Fe] abundance ratios are observed, and lower limits are ascertained for [Ba/Y], which sit well above the Milky Way trend. These chemical signatures demonstrate that the undiscovered parent system is unequivocally a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, consistent with dynamical constraints inferred from the stream width and arc. As such, we firmly exclude the proposed association between NGC 2419 and the Orphan stream. A wide range in metallicities adds to the similarities between the Orphan stream and Segue 1, although the low [{alpha}/Fe] abundance ratios in the Orphan stream are in tension with the high [{alpha}/Fe] values observed in Segue 1. Open questions remain before Segue 1 could possibly be claimed as the "parent" of the Orphan stream. The parent system could well remain undiscovered in the southern sky.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/757/164
- Title:
- Oxygen abundances of dwarf stars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/757/164
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Oxygen abundances of 67 dwarf stars in the metallicity range -1.6<[Fe/H]<-0.4 are derived from a non-LTE analysis of the 777nm OI triplet lines. These stars have precise atmospheric parameters measured by Nissen and Schuster (Cat. J/A+A/511/L10), who find that they separate into three groups based on their kinematics and {alpha}-element (Mg, Si, Ca, Ti) abundances: thick disk, high-{alpha} halo, and low-{alpha} halo. We find the oxygen abundance trends of thick-disk and high-{alpha} halo stars very similar. The low-{alpha} stars show a larger star-to-star scatter in [O/Fe] at a given [Fe/H] and have systematically lower oxygen abundances compared to the other two groups. Thus, we find the behavior of oxygen abundances in these groups of stars similar to that of the {alpha} elements. We use previously published oxygen abundance data of disk and very metal-poor halo stars to present an overall view (-2.3<[Fe/H]<+0.3) of oxygen abundance trends of stars in the solar neighborhood. Two field halo dwarf stars stand out in their O and Na abundances. Both G53-41 and G150-40 have very low oxygen and very high sodium abundances, which are key signatures of the abundance anomalies observed in globular cluster (GC) stars. Therefore, they are likely field halo stars born in GCs. If true, we estimate that at least 3%+/-2% of the local field metal-poor star population was born in GCs.
