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- Miglio, A., et al.
(författare)
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PLATO as it is : A legacy mission for Galactic archaeology
- 2017
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Ingår i: Astronomical Notes - Astronomische Nachrichten. - : WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH. - 0004-6337 .- 1521-3994. ; 338:6, s. 644-661
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Deciphering the assembly history of the Milky Way is a formidable task, which becomes possible only if one can produce high-resolution chrono-chemo-kinematical maps of the Galaxy. Data from large-scale astrometric and spectroscopic surveys will soon provide us with a well-defined view of the current chemo-kinematical structure of the Milky Way, but it will only enable a blurred view on the temporal sequence that led to the present-day Galaxy. As demonstrated by the (ongoing) exploitation of data from the pioneering photometric missions CoRoT, Kepler, and K2, asteroseismology provides the way forward: solar-like oscillating giants are excellent evolutionary clocks thanks to the availability of seismic constraints on their mass and to the tight age-initial mass relation they adhere to. In this paper we identify five key outstanding questions relating to the formation and evolution of the Milky Way that will need precise and accurate ages for large samples of stars to be addressed, and we identify the requirements in terms of number of targets and the precision on the stellar properties that are needed to tackle such questions. By quantifying the asteroseismic yields expected from PLATO for red giant stars, we demonstrate that these requirements are within the capabilities of the current instrument design, provided that observations are sufficiently long to identify the evolutionary state and allow robust and precise determination of acoustic-mode frequencies. This will allow us to harvest data of sufficient quality to reach a 10% precision in age. This is a fundamental prerequisite to then reach the more ambitious goal of a similar level of accuracy, which will be possible only if we have at hand a careful appraisal of systematic uncertainties on age deriving from our limited understanding of stellar physics, a goal that conveniently falls within the main aims of PLATO's core science. We therefore strongly endorse PLATO's current design and proposed observational strategy, and conclude that PLATO, as it is, will be a legacy mission for Galactic archaeology.
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| 2. |
- Pagnini, G., et al.
(författare)
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The distribution of globular clusters in kinematic spaces does not trace the accretion history of the host galaxy
- 2023
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 673
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. Reconstructing how all the stellar components of the Galaxy formed and assembled over time by studying the properties of the stars that form it is the aim of Galactic archaeology. Thanks to the launch of the ESA Gaia astrometric mission and the development of many spectroscopic surveys in recent years, we are for the first time in the position to delve into the layers of the past of the Galaxy. Globular clusters play a fundamental role in this research field since they are among the oldest stellar systems in the MW and thus bear witness to its entire past. Aims. As a natural result of galaxy formation, globular clusters did not necessarily all form in the Galaxy itself. Indeed, a fraction of them could have been formed in satellite galaxies accreted by the Milky Way over time. In recent years, there have been several attempts to constrain the nature of clusters (accreted or formed in the Milky Way itself) through the analysis of kinematic spaces, such as the E - Lz, Lperp - Lz, eccentricity - Lz, and the action space, as well as attempts to reconstruct the properties of the accretion events experienced by the Milky Way through time from this kind of analysis. This work aims to test a widely used assumption about the clustering of the accreted populations of globular clusters in the integrals of motions space. Methods. In this paper we analyse a set of dissipationless N-body simulations that reproduce the accretion of one or two satellites with their globular cluster population on a Milky Way-type galaxy. Results. Our results demonstrate that a significant overlap between accreted and 'kinematically heated' in situ globular clusters is expected in kinematic spaces for mergers with mass ratios of 1:10. In contrast with the standard assumptions made in the literature so far, we find that accreted globular clusters do not show dynamical coherence, that is, they do not cluster in kinematic spaces. In addition, we show that globular clusters can also be found in regions dominated by stars that have a different origin (i.e. a different progenitor). This casts doubt on the association between clusters and field stars that is generally made in the literature and is used to assign them to a common origin. By means of Gaussian mixture models, we demonstrate that the overlap of clusters is not only a projection effect on specific planes but is also found when the whole set of kinematic properties (i.e. E, Lz, Lperp, eccentricity, radial, and vertical actions) is taken into account. Overall, our findings severely question the recovered accretion history of the Milky Way based on the phase-space clustering of the globular cluster population.
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