1. |
- Smiljanic, R., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO Survey : properties of newly discovered Li-rich giants
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 617
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims. We report 20 new lithium-rich giants discovered within the Gaia-ESO Survey, including the first Li-rich giant with an evolutionary stage confirmed by CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits) data. We present a detailed overview of the properties of these 20 stars. Methods. Atmospheric parameters and abundances were derived in model atmosphere analyses using medium-resolution GIRAFFE or high-resolution UVES (Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph) spectra. These results are part of the fifth internal data release of the Gaia-ESO Survey. The Li abundances were corrected for non-local thermodynamical equilibrium effects. Other stellar properties were investigated for additional peculiarities (the core of strong lines for signs of magnetic activity, infrared magnitudes, rotational velocities, chemical abundances, and Galactic velocities). We used Gaia DR2 parallaxes to estimate distances and luminosities. Results. The giants have A(Li) > 2.2 dex. The majority of them (14 of 20 stars) are in the CoRoT fields. Four giants are located in the field of three open clusters, but are not members. Two giants were observed in fields towards the Galactic bulge, but likely lie in the inner disc. One of the bulge field giants is super Li-rich with A(Li) = 4.0 dex. Conclusions. We identified one giant with infrared excess at 22 mu m. Two other giants, with large v sin i, might be Li-rich because of planet engulfment. Another giant is found to be barium enhanced and thus could have accreted material from a former asymptotic giant branch companion. Otherwise, in addition to the Li enrichment, the evolutionary stages are the only other connection between these new Li-rich giants. The CoRoT data confirm that one Li-rich giant is at the core-He burning stage. The other giants are concentrated in close proximity to the red giant branch luminosity bump, the core-He burning stages, or the early-asymptotic giant branch. This is very clear from the Gaia-based luminosities of the Li-rich giants. This is also seen when the CoRoT Li-rich giants are compared to a larger sample of 2252 giants observed in the CoRoT fields by the Gaia-ESO Survey, which are distributed throughout the red giant branch in the T-eff-log g diagram. These observations show that the evolutionary stage is a major factor for the Li enrichment in giants. Other processes, such as planet accretion, contribute at a smaller scale.
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2. |
- Bertelli Motta, C., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO Survey : evidence of atomic diffusion in M67?
- 2018
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 478:1, s. 425-438
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Investigating the chemical homogeneity of stars born from the same molecular cloud at virtually the same time is very important for our understanding of the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium and with it the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. One major cause of inhomogeneities in the abundances of open clusters is stellar evolution of the cluster members. In this work, we investigate variations in the surface chemical composition of member stars of the old open cluster M67 as a possible consequence of atomic diffusion effects taking place during the main-sequence phase. The abundances used are obtained from high-resolution UVES/FLAMES spectra within the framework of the Gaia-ESO Survey. We find that the surface abundances of stars on the main sequence decrease with increasing mass reaching a minimum at the turn-off. After deepening of the convective envelope in subgiant branch stars, the initial surface abundances are restored. We found the measured abundances to be consistent with the predictions of stellar evolutionary models for a cluster with the age and metallicity of M67. Our findings indicate that atomic diffusion poses a non-negligible constraint on the achievable precision of chemical tagging methods.
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3. |
- Fu, X., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO Survey : Lithium enrichment histories of the Galactic thick and thin disc
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP SCIENCES S A. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 610
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Lithium abundance in most of the warm metal-poor main sequence stars shows a constarnt plateau (A(Li) similar to 2.2 dex) and then the upper envelope of the lithium vs. metallicity distribution increases as we approach solar metallicity. Meteorites, which carry information about the chemical composition of the interstellar medium (ISM) at the solar system formation time, show a lithium abundance A(Li) similar to 3.26 dex. This pattern reflects the Li enrichment history of the ISM during the Galaxy lifetime. After the initial Li production in big bang nucleosynthesis, the sources of the enrichment include asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, low-mass red giants, novae, type II supernovae, and Galactic cosmic rays. The total amount of enriched Li is sensitive to the relative contribution of these sources. Thus different Li enrichment histories are expected in the Galactic thick and thin disc. We investigate the main sequence stars observed with UVES in Gaia-ESO Survey iDR4 catalogue and find a Li[alpha/Fe] anticorrelation independent of [Fe/H], T-eff, and log(g). Since in stellar evolution different alpha enhancements at the same metallicity do not lead to a measurable Li abundance change, the anticorrelation indicates that more Li is produced during the Galactic thin disc phase than during the Galactic thick disc phase. We also find a correlation between the abundance of Li and s-process elements Ba and Y, and they both decrease above the solar metallicity, which can be explained in the framework of the adopted Galactic chemical evolution models.
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4. |
- Hayden, M. R., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO Survey : Churning through the Milky Way
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP SCIENCES S A. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 609
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 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 R-p > 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 similar to 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.
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5. |
- Thompson, B. B., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO Survey : matching chemodynamical simulations to observations of the Milky Way
- 2018
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 473:1, s. 185-197
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The typical methodology for comparing simulated galaxies with observational surveys is usually to apply a spatial selection to the simulation to mimic the region of interest covered by a comparable observational survey sample. In this work, we compare this approach with a more sophisticated post-processing in which the observational uncertainties and selection effects (photometric, surface gravity and effective temperature) are taken into account. We compare a 'solar neighbourhood analogue' region in a model Milky Way-like galaxy simulated with RAMSES-CH with fourth release Gaia-ESO survey data. We find that a simple spatial cut alone is insufficient and that the observational uncertainties must be accounted for in the comparison. This is particularly true when the scale of uncertainty is large compared to the dynamic range of the data, e.g. in our comparison, the [Mg/Fe] distribution is affected much more than the more accurately determined [Fe/H] distribution. Despite clear differences in the underlying distributions of elemental abundances between simulation and observation, incorporating scatter to our simulation results to mimic observational uncertainty produces reasonable agreement. The quite complete nature of the Gaia-ESO survey means that the selection function has minimal impact on the distribution of observed age and metal abundances but this would become increasingly more important for surveys with narrower selection functions.
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6. |
- Thompson, B. B., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO survey : Matching chemodynamical simulations to observations of the Milky Way
- 2018
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In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - 0035-8711. ; 473:1, s. 185-197
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The typical methodology for comparing simulated galaxies with observational surveys is usually to apply a spatial selection to the simulation to mimic the region of interest covered by a comparable observational survey sample. In this work, we compare this approach with a more sophisticated post-processing in which the observational uncertainties and selection effects (photometric, surface gravity and effective temperature) are taken into account. We compare a 'solar neighbourhood analogue' region in a model MilkyWay-like galaxy simulated with RAMSES-CH with fourth release Gaia-ESO survey data. We find that a simple spatial cut alone is insufficient and that the observational uncertainties must be accounted for in the comparison. This is particularly true when the scale of uncertainty is large compared to the dynamic range of the data, e.g. in our comparison, the [Mg/Fe] distribution is affected much more than the more accurately determined [Fe/H] distribution. Despite clear differences in the underlying distributions of elemental abundances between simulation and observation, incorporating scatter to our simulation results to mimic observational uncertainty produces reasonable agreement. The quite complete nature of the Gaia-ESO survey means that the selection function has minimal impact on the distribution of observed age and metal abundances but this would become increasingly more important for surveys with narrower selection functions.
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7. |
- Martocchia, S., et al.
(author)
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The search for multiple populations in Magellanic Cloud clusters - IV. Coeval multiple stellar populations in the young star cluster NGC 1978
- 2018
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 477:4, s. 4696-4705
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We have recently shown that the similar to 2 Gyr old Large Magellanic Cloud star cluster NGC 1978 hosts multiple populations in terms of star-to-star abundance variations in [N/Fe]. These can be seen as a splitting or spread in the subgiant and red giant branches (SGB and RGB) when certain photometric filter combinations are used. Because of its relative youth, NGC 1978 can be used to place stringent limits on whether multiple bursts of star formation have taken place within the cluster, as predicted by some models for the origin of multiple populations. We carry out two distinct analyses to test whether multiple star formation epochs have occurred within NGC 1978. First, we use ultraviolet colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) to select stars from the first and second population along the SGB, and then compare their positions in optical CMDs, where the morphology is dominantly controlled by age as opposed to multiple population effects. We find that the two populations are indistinguishable, with age differences of 1 +/- 20 Myr between them. This is in tension with predictions from the asymptotic giant branch scenario for the origin of multiple populations. Second, we estimate the broadness of the main-sequence turn-off (MSTO) of NGC 1978 and we report that it is consistent with the observational errors. We find an upper limit of similar to 65 Myr on the age spread in the MSTO of NGC 1978. This finding is in conflict with the age spread scenario as origin of the extended MSTO in intermediate-age clusters, while it fully supports predictions from the stellar rotation model.
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8. |
- Martocchia, S., et al.
(author)
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Age as a major factor in the onset of multiple populations in stellar clusters
- 2018
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 473:2, s. 2688-2700
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- It is now well established that globular clusters (GCs) exhibit star-to-star light-element abundance variations (known as multiple populations, MPs). Such chemical anomalies have been found in (nearly) all the ancient GCs (more than 10 Gyr old) of our Galaxy and its close companions, but so far no model for the origin of MPs is able to reproduce all the relevant observations. To gain new insights into this phenomenon, we have undertaken a photometric Hubble Space Telescope survey to study clusters with masses comparable to that of old GCs, where MPs have been identified, but with significantly younger ages. Nine clusters in the Magellanic Clouds with ages between similar to 1.5 and 11 Gyr have been targeted in this survey. We confirm the presence of MPs in all clusters older than 6 Gyr and we add NGC 1978 to the group of clusters for which MPs have been identified. With an age of similar to 2 Gyr, NGC 1978 is the youngest cluster known to host chemical abundance spreads found to date. We do not detect evident star-to-star variations for slightly younger massive clusters (similar to 1.7 Gyr), thus pointing towards an unexpected age dependence for the onset of MPs. This discovery suggests that the formation of MPs is not restricted to the early Universe and that GCs and young massive clusters share common formation and evolutionary processes.
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