scholarly journals The Flattening Metallicity Gradient in the Milky Way’s Thin Disk

2021 ◽  
Vol 922 (2) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
John J. Vickers ◽  
Juntai Shen ◽  
Zhao-Yu Li
Keyword(s):  
Phase Space ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Thin Disk ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Radial Migration ◽  
Orbital Parameters ◽  
Maximal Height ◽  
Hallmark Feature ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract We calculate the ages, orbits and phase-space coordinates for a sample of ∼4 million LAMOST and Gaia stars. The ages are cross-matched and compared with values from two other popular age catalogs, which derive the ages using different methods. Of these ∼4 million stars, we select a sample of 1.3 million stars and investigate their radial metallicity gradients (as determined by orbital radii) as a function of their ages. This analysis is performed on various subsets of the data split by chemistry and orbital parameters. We find that commonly used selections for “thin disk” stars (such as low-α chemistry or vertically thin orbits) yield radial metallicity gradients that generally grow shallower for the oldest stars. We interpret this as a hallmark feature of radial migration (churning). Constraining our sample to very small orbital Z max (the maximal height of a star’s integrated orbit) makes this trend most pronounced. A chemistry-based “thin disk” selection of α-poor stars displays the same trend, but to a lesser extent. Intriguingly, we find that “thick disk” selections in chemistry and Z max reveal slightly positive radial metallicity gradients, which seem similar in magnitude at all ages. This may imply that the thick disk population is well mixed in age, but not in radius. This finding could help constrain conditions during the early epochs of Milky Way formation and shed light on processes such as the accretion and reaccretion of gases of different metallicities.

scholarly journals Solar Neighbourhood Age–Metallicity Relation Based on Hipparcos Data

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akihiko Ibukiyama
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Formation Rate ◽  
Vertical Gradient ◽  
Thin Disk ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Solar Neighbourhood ◽  
Orbital Parameters ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
The One

AbstractWe derive age–metallicity relations (AMRs) and orbits for the 1658 solar neighbourhood stars for which accurate distances are measured by the Hipparcos satellite. The sample comprises 1382 thin disk stars, 229 thick disk stars, and 47 halo stars according to their orbital parameters. We find a considerable scatter for thin disk AMRs along the one-zone Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) model. Orbits and metallicities of thin disk stars show no clear relation to each other. The scatter along the AMR exists even if stars with the same orbits are selected. We examine simple extensions of one-zone GCE models which account for inhomogeneity in the effective yield and inhomogeneous star formation rate in the Galaxy. Both extensions of the one-zone GCE model cannot account for the scatter in the age–[Fe/H]–[Ca/Fe] relation simultaneously. We conclude, therefore, that the scatter along the thin disk AMR is an essential feature in the formation and evolution of the Galaxy. The AMR for thick disk stars shows that star formation terminated 8 Gyr ago in the thick disk. As previously reported, thick disk stars are more Ca-rich than thin disk stars with the same [Fe/H]. We find that thick disk stars show a vertical abundance gradient. These three facts — AMR, vertical gradient, and [Ca/Fe]–[Fe/H] relation — support monolithic collapse and/or accretion of satellite dwarf galaxies as likely thick disk formation scenarios.

scholarly journals Streams, Substructures, and the Early History of the Milky Way

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amina Helmi
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Phase Space ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Age Dating ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Chemical Labeling ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Hydrodynamical Simulations

The advent of the second data release of the Gaia mission, in combination with data from large spectroscopic surveys, is revolutionizing our understanding of the Galaxy. Thanks to these transformational data sets and the knowledge accumulated thus far, a new, more mature picture of the evolution of the early Milky Way is currently emerging. ▪  Two of the traditional Galactic components, namely, the stellar halo and the thick disk, appear to be intimately linked: Stars with halo-like kinematics originate in similar proportions from a heated (thick) disk and from debris from a system named Gaia-Enceladus. Gaia-Enceladus was the last big merger event experienced by the Milky Way and was completed around 10 Gyr ago. The puffed-up stars now present in the halo as a consequence of the merger have thus exposed the existence of a disk component at z ∼ 1.8. This is likely related to the previously known metal-weak thick disk and may be traceable to metallicities [Fe/H] [Formula: see text] −4. As importantly, there is evidence that the merger with Gaia-Enceladus triggered star formation in the early Milky Way, plausibly leading to the appearance of the thick disk as we know it. ▪  Other merger events have been characterized better, and new ones have been uncovered. These include, for example, the Helmi streams, Sequoia, and Thamnos, which add to the list of those discovered in wide-field photometric surveys, such as the Sagittarius streams. Current knowledge of their progenitors’ properties, star formation, and chemical evolutionary histories is still incomplete. ▪  Debris from different objects shows different degrees of overlap in phase-space. This sometimes confusing situation can be improved by determining membership probabilities via quantitative statistical methods. A task for the next few years will be to use ongoing and planned spectroscopic surveys for chemical labeling and to disentangle events from one another using dimensions other than phase-space, metallicity, or [α/Fe]. ▪  These large surveys will also provide line-of-sight velocities missing for faint stars in Gaia releases and more accurate distance determinations for distant objects, which in combination with other surveys could also lead to more accurate age dating. The resulting samples of stars will cover a much wider volume of the Galaxy, allowing, for example, the linking of kinematic substructures found in the inner halo to spatial overdensities in the outer halo. ▪  All the results obtained so far are in line with the expectations of current cosmological models. Nonetheless, tailored hydrodynamical simulations to reproduce in detail the properties of the merger debris, as well as constrained cosmological simulations of the Milky Way, are needed. Such simulations will undoubtedly unravel more connections between the different Galactic components and their substructures, and will aid in pushing our knowledge of the assembly of the Milky Way to the earliest times.

scholarly journals Metallicity Structures of the Milky Way

1996 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 427-428
Author(s):  
Roland Buser ◽  
Jianxiang Rong
Keyword(s):  
High Latitude ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Structural Models ◽  
Thin Disk ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Abundance Gradient ◽  
Galactic Population

The metallicity-sensitive (U – G) colors from the new homogeneous catalog of photographic RGU data in seven high-latitude fields have been used to determine the larger-scale metallicity distributions of the Galactic population components. For the thick disk, preliminary analysis based on our best structural models provides a mean metallicity 〈[M/H]〉 = −0.6 ± 0.3dex and a marginal vertical metallicity gradient ≈ −0.1dex/kpc. The observed color distributions are further consistent with the (old) thin disk having mean abundance 〈[M/H]〉 = −0.3 ± 0.2dex and abundance gradient ∂[M/H]/∂z = −0.6dex/kpc.

scholarly journals Modelling the chemical evolution of the Milky Way

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Matteucci
Keyword(s):  
Observational Data ◽  
Chemical Evolution ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Thin Disk ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Stellar Nucleosynthesis

AbstractIn this review, I will discuss the comparison between model results and observational data for the Milky Way, the predictive power of such models as well as their limits. Such a comparison, known as Galactic archaeology, allows us to impose constraints on stellar nucleosynthesis and timescales of formation of the various Galactic components (halo, bulge, thick disk and thin disk).

scholarly journals The radial extent of the Galactic thick disk

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (S321) ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
Thomas Bensby
Keyword(s):  
Milky Way ◽  
Galactic Disk ◽  
Thin Disk ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Stellar Disk ◽  
Chemical Signatures ◽  
Radial Extent ◽  
Thin And Thick Disks ◽  
Thick Disks ◽  
Scale Length

AbstractBased on observational data from the fourth internal data release of the Gaia-ESO Survey we probe the abundance structure in the Milky Way stellar disk as a function of galactocentric radius and height above the plane. We find that the inner and outer Galactic disks have different chemical signatures. The stars in the inner Galactic disk show abundance signatures of both the thin and thick disks, while the stars in the outer Galactic disk resemble in majority the abundances seen in the thin disk. Assuming that the Galactic thick disk can be associated with the α-enriched population, this can be interpreted as that the thick disk density drops drastically beyond a galactocentric radius of about 10 kpc. This is in agreement with recent findings that the thick disk has a short scale-length, shorter than that of the the thin disk.

scholarly journals Relics of Primordial Star Formation: The Milky Way and Local Dwarfs

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S255) ◽  
pp. 323-329
Author(s):  
Timothy C. Beers ◽  
Young Sun Lee ◽  
Daniela Carollo
Keyword(s):  
Milky Way ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
Halo Structure ◽  
Orbital Parameters ◽  
The Past ◽  
Element Ratios ◽  
Test Models ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
History Of

AbstractMassive spectroscopic surveys of stars in the thick disk and halo populations of the Galaxy hold the potential to provide strong constraints on the processes involved in (and the timing of) the assembly history of the primary structural components of the Galaxy. In this talk, we explore what has been learned from one of the first such dedicated surveys, SDSS/SEGUE. Over the course of the past three years, SEGUE has obtained spectra for over 200,000 stars, while another hundred thousand stars been added from the calibration star observations of the (primarily extragalactic) SDSS, and other directed programs. A total of well over 10,000 stars with [Fe/H] < −2.0 have been discovered, including several hundred with [Fe/H] < −3.0. Their kinematics have revealed a inner/outer halo structure of the Galaxy.New determinations of the alpha element ratios for tens of thousands of these stars are reported. Correlations of the alpha-element ratios with kinematics and orbital parameters can be used to test models of the likely formation of the thick-disk and halo components. These new data will (eventually) be considered in connection with possible associations with the present dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.

scholarly journals The Gaia-ESO Survey: Churning through the Milky Way

2018 ◽  
Vol 609 ◽  
pp. A79 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Hayden ◽  
A. Recio-Blanco ◽  
P. de Laverny ◽  
S. Mikolaitis ◽  
G. Guiglion ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Milky Way ◽  
Past History ◽  
Stellar Populations ◽  
Solar Neighborhood ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Radial Migration ◽  
Orbital Parameters ◽  
The Past ◽  
Major Merger ◽  
History Of

Context. There have been conflicting results with respect to the extent that radial migration has played in the evolution of the Galaxy. Additionally, observations of the solar neighborhood have shown evidence of a merger in the past history of the Milky Way that drives enhanced radial migration. Aims. We attempt to determine the relative fraction of stars that have undergone significant radial migration by studying the orbital properties of metal-rich ([Fe/H] > 0.1) stars within 2 kpc of the Sun. We also aim to investigate the kinematic properties, such as velocity dispersion and orbital parameters, of stellar populations near the Sun as a function of [Mg/Fe] and [Fe/H], which could show evidence of a major merger in the past history of the Milky Way. Methods. We used a sample of more than 3000 stars selected from the fourth internal data release of the Gaia-ESO Survey. We used the stellar parameters from the Gaia-ESO Survey along with proper motions from PPMXL to determine distances, kinematics, and orbital properties for these stars to analyze the chemodynamic properties of stellar populations near the Sun. Results. Analyzing the kinematics of the most metal-rich stars ([Fe/H] > 0.1), we find that more than half have small eccentricities (e< 0.2) or are on nearly circular orbits. Slightly more than 20% of the metal-rich stars have perigalacticons Rp> 7 kpc. We find that the highest [Mg/Fe], metal-poor populations have lower vertical and radial velocity dispersions compared to lower [Mg/Fe] populations of similar metallicity by ~10 km s-1. The median eccentricity increases linearly with [Mg/Fe] across all metallicities, while the perigalacticon decreases with increasing [Mg/Fe] for all metallicities. Finally, the most [Mg/Fe]-rich stars are found to have significant asymmetric drift and rotate more than 40 km s-1 slower than stars with lower [Mg/Fe] ratios. Conclusions. While our results cannot constrain how far stars have migrated, we propose that migration processes are likely to have played an important role in the evolution of the Milky Way, with metal-rich stars migrating from the inner disk toward to solar neighborhood and past mergers potentially driving enhanced migration of older stellar populations in the disk.

scholarly journals Characterisation of the Galactic thick disk

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S298) ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Thomas Bensby
Keyword(s):  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Milky Way ◽  
Spiral Galaxies ◽  
Thin Disk ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Host Galaxy ◽  
Galaxy Formation And Evolution ◽  
Formation History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Formation And Evolution

AbstractThick disks appear to be common in external large spiral galaxies and our own Milky Way also hosts one. The existence of a thick disk is possibly directly linked to the formation history of the host galaxy and if its properties is known it can constrain models of galaxy formation and help us to better understand galaxy formation and evolution. This brief review attempts to highlight some of the characteristics of the Galactic thick disk and how it relates to other stellar populations such as the thin disk and the Galactic bulge. Focus has been put on results from high-resolution spectroscopic data obtained during the last 10 to 15 years.

scholarly journals The Galactic Disk-Halo Transition – Evidence from Stellar Abundances

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S254) ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poul Erik Nissen ◽  
William J. Schuster
Keyword(s):  
Milky Way ◽  
Galactic Disk ◽  
Thin Disk ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Chemical Abundance ◽  
Elemental Abundances ◽  
Halo Stars ◽  
New Information ◽  
First Results ◽  
Satellite Galaxies

AbstractNew information on the relations between the Galactic disks, the halo, and satellite galaxies is being obtained from elemental abundances of stars having metallicities in the range −1.5 < [Fe/H] < −0.5. The first results for a sample of 26 halo stars and 13 thick-disk stars observed with the ESO VLT/UVES spectrograph are presented. The halo stars fall in two distinct groups: one group (9 stars) has [α/Fe] = 0.30 ± 0.03 like the thick-disk stars. The other group (17 stars) shows a clearly deviating trend ranging from [α/Fe] = 0.20 at [Fe/H] = −1.3 to [α/Fe] = 0.08 at [Fe/H] = −0.8. The kinematics of the stars are discussed and the abundance ratios Na/Fe, Ni/Fe, Cu/Fe and Ba/Y are applied to see if the “low-alpha” stars are connected to the thin disk or to Milky Way satellite galaxies. Furthermore, we compare our data with simulations of chemical abundance distributions in hierarchically formed stellar halos in a ΛCDM Universe.

Chemo-Kinematic Properties of the Galactic Disk with SEGUE G and K Dwarfs: Constraints on Formation

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (S334) ◽  
pp. 306-307
Author(s):  
Doori Han ◽  
Young Sun Lee ◽  
Young Kwang Kim ◽  
Timothy C. Beers
Keyword(s):  
Milky Way ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Galactic Disk ◽  
Thin Disk ◽  
Thick Disk ◽  
Formation Mechanisms ◽  
Orbital Eccentricity ◽  
Disk Formation ◽  
Velocity Gradients ◽  
Kinematic Properties

AbstractWe present the derived kinematic characteristics of low-α thin-disk and high-α thick-disk stars in the Milky Way, investigated with a sample of about 32,000 G- and K-type dwarfs from the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE). Based on the level of α-element enhancement as a function of [Fe/H], we separate our sample into thin- and thick-disk stars and then derive mean velocities, velocity dispersions, and velocity gradients for the U, V, and W velocity components, respectively, as well as the orbital eccentricity distribution. There are notable gradients in the V velocity over [Fe/H] in both populations: −23 km s−1 dex−1 for the thin disk and +44 km s−1 dex−1 for the thick disk. The velocity dispersion of the thick disk decreases with increasing [Fe/H], while the velocity dispersion gradient over [Fe/H] for the thin disk is almost flat for all velocity components, except for the W velocity dispersion of the metal-poor thin-disk stars. The eccentricity distribution exhibits a peak at a higher value, and is more symmetric as [α/Fe] increases, implying that complex formation mechanisms may be involved. Our results can be used to constrain several proposed disk-formation scenarios of the Milky Way and other large spirals.

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