1. |
- Lucey, Madeline, et al.
(författare)
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The COMBS Survey - II. Distinguishing the metal-poor bulge from the halo interlopers
- 2021
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Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 501:4, s. 5981-5996
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The metal-poor stars in the bulge are important relics of the Milky Way's formation history, as simulations predict that they are some of the oldest stars in the Galaxy. In order to determine if they are truly ancient stars, we must understand their origins. Currently, it is unclear if the metal-poor stars in the bulge ([Fe/H] < -1 dex) are merely halo interlopers, a unique accreted population, part of the boxy/peanut-shaped bulge, or a classical bulge population. In this work, we use spectra from the VLT/FLAMES spectrograph to obtain metallicity estimates using the Ca-II triplet of 473 bulge stars (187 of which have [Fe/H] < -1 dex), targeted using SkyMapper photometry. We also use Gaia DR2 data to infer the Galactic positions and velocities along with orbital properties for 523 stars. We employ a probabilistic orbit analysis and find that about half of our sample has a >50 per cent probability of being bound to the bulge, and half are halo interlopers. We also see that the occurrence rate of halo interlopers increases steadily with decreasing metallicity across the full range of our sample (-3 < [Fe/H] < 0.5). Our examination of the kinematics of the confined compared to the unbound stars indicates the metal-poor bulge comprises at least two populations; those confined to the boxy/peanut bulge and halo stars passing through the inner galaxy. We conclude that an orbital analysis approach, as we have employed, is important to understand the composite nature of the metal-poor stars in the inner region.
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2. |
- Lucey, Madeline, et al.
(författare)
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The COMBS Survey - III. The chemodynamical origins of metal-poor bulge stars
- 2022
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Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 509:1, s. 122-144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The characteristics of the stellar populations in the Galactic bulge info and constrain the Milky Way's foation and evolution. The metal-poor population is particularly important in light of cosmological silations, which predict that some of the oldest stars in the Galaxy now reside in its centre. The metal-poor bulge appears to consist of ltiple stellar populations that require dynamical analyses to disentangle. In this work, we undertake a detailed chemodynamical study of the metal-poor stars in the inner Galaxy. Using R 20 000 VLT/GIRAFFE spectra of 319 metal-poor (-2.55 dex ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ 0.83 dex, with $overline{ {[Fe/H]}}$ = -0.84 dex) stars, we perfo stellar parameter analysis and report 12 elemental abundances (C, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, Cr, Mn, Zn, Ba, and Ce) with precisions of ≈0.10 dex. Based on kinematic and spatial properties, we categorize the stars into four groups, associated with the following Galactic structures: the inner bulge, the outer bulge, the halo, and the disc. We find evidence that the inner and outer bulge population is more chemically complex (i.e. higher chemical dimensionality and less correlated abundances) than the halo population. This result suggests that the older bulge population was enriched by a larger diversity of nucleosynthetic events. We also find one inner bulge star with a [Ca/Mg] ratio consistent with theoretical pair-instability supernova yields and two stars that have chemistry consistent with globular cluster stars.
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3. |
- Ness, M., et al.
(författare)
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Young stars in an old bulge: a natural outcome of internal evolution in the Milky Way
- 2014
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Letters. - 2041-8213. ; 787:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The center of our disk galaxy, the Milky Way, is dominated by a boxy/peanut-shaped bulge. Numerous studies of the bulge based on stellar photometry have concluded that the bulge stars are exclusively old. The perceived lack of young stars in the bulge strongly constrains its likely formation scenarios, providing evidence that the bulge is a unique population that formed early and separately from the disk. However, recent studies of individual bulge stars using the microlensing technique have reported that they span a range of ages, emphasizing that the bulge may not be a monolithic structure. In this Letter we demonstrate that the presence of young stars that are located predominantly nearer to the plane is expected for a bulge that has formed from the disk via dynamical instabilities. Using an N-body + smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of a disk galaxy forming out of gas cooling inside a dark matter halo and forming stars, we find a qualitative agreement between our model and the observations of younger metal-rich stars in the bulge. We are also able to partially resolve the apparent contradiction in the literature between results that argue for a purely old bulge population and those that show a population comprised of a range in ages; the key is where to look.
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