Birth of the Galactic Disk Revealed by the H3 Survey

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Conroy, Charlie, Weinberg, David H., Naidu, Rohan P., Buck, Tobias, Johnson, James W., Cargile, Phillip, Bonaca, Ana, Caldwell, Nelson, Chandra, Vedant, Han, Jiwon Jesse, Johnson, Benjamin D., Speagle, Joshua S., Ting, Yuan-Sen, Woody, Turner, Zaritsky, Dennis
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2022
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author Conroy, Charlie
Weinberg, David H.
Naidu, Rohan P.
Buck, Tobias
Johnson, James W.
Cargile, Phillip
Bonaca, Ana
Caldwell, Nelson
Chandra, Vedant
Han, Jiwon Jesse
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Speagle, Joshua S.
Ting, Yuan-Sen
Woody, Turner
Zaritsky, Dennis
author_facet Conroy, Charlie
Weinberg, David H.
Naidu, Rohan P.
Buck, Tobias
Johnson, James W.
Cargile, Phillip
Bonaca, Ana
Caldwell, Nelson
Chandra, Vedant
Han, Jiwon Jesse
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Speagle, Joshua S.
Ting, Yuan-Sen
Woody, Turner
Zaritsky, Dennis
contents We use chemistry ([alpha/Fe] and [Fe/H]), main sequence turnoff ages, and kinematics determined from H3 Survey spectroscopy and Gaia astrometry to identify the birth of the Galactic disk. We separate in-situ and accreted stars on the basis of angular momenta and eccentricities. The sequence of high-alpha in-situ stars persists down to at least [Fe/H]=-2.5 and shows unexpected non-monotonic behavior: with increasing metallicity the population first declines in [alpha/Fe], then increases over the range -1.3<[Fe/H]<-0.7, and then declines again at higher metallicities. The number of stars in the in-situ population rapidly increases above [Fe/H]=-1. The average kinematics of these stars are hot and independent of metallicity at [Fe/H]<-1 and then become increasingly cold and disk-like at higher metallicities. The ages of the in-situ, high-alpha stars are uniformly very old (13 Gyr) at [Fe/H]<-1.3, and span a wider range (8-12 Gyr) at higher metallicities. Interpreting the chemistry with a simple chemical evolution model suggests that the non-monotonic behavior is due to a significant increase in star formation efficiency, which began 13 Gyr ago. These results support a picture in which the first 1 Gyr of the Galaxy was characterized by a "simmering phase" in which the star formation efficiency was low and the kinematics had substantial disorder with some net rotation. The disk then underwent a dramatic transformation to a "boiling phase", in which the star formation efficiency increased substantially, the kinematics became disk-like, and the number of stars formed increased tenfold. We interpret this transformation as the birth of the Galactic disk at z~4. The physical origin of this transformation is unclear and does not seem to be reproduced in current galaxy formation models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2204_02989
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Birth of the Galactic Disk Revealed by the H3 Survey
Conroy, Charlie
Weinberg, David H.
Naidu, Rohan P.
Buck, Tobias
Johnson, James W.
Cargile, Phillip
Bonaca, Ana
Caldwell, Nelson
Chandra, Vedant
Han, Jiwon Jesse
Johnson, Benjamin D.
Speagle, Joshua S.
Ting, Yuan-Sen
Woody, Turner
Zaritsky, Dennis
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We use chemistry ([alpha/Fe] and [Fe/H]), main sequence turnoff ages, and kinematics determined from H3 Survey spectroscopy and Gaia astrometry to identify the birth of the Galactic disk. We separate in-situ and accreted stars on the basis of angular momenta and eccentricities. The sequence of high-alpha in-situ stars persists down to at least [Fe/H]=-2.5 and shows unexpected non-monotonic behavior: with increasing metallicity the population first declines in [alpha/Fe], then increases over the range -1.3<[Fe/H]<-0.7, and then declines again at higher metallicities. The number of stars in the in-situ population rapidly increases above [Fe/H]=-1. The average kinematics of these stars are hot and independent of metallicity at [Fe/H]<-1 and then become increasingly cold and disk-like at higher metallicities. The ages of the in-situ, high-alpha stars are uniformly very old (13 Gyr) at [Fe/H]<-1.3, and span a wider range (8-12 Gyr) at higher metallicities. Interpreting the chemistry with a simple chemical evolution model suggests that the non-monotonic behavior is due to a significant increase in star formation efficiency, which began 13 Gyr ago. These results support a picture in which the first 1 Gyr of the Galaxy was characterized by a "simmering phase" in which the star formation efficiency was low and the kinematics had substantial disorder with some net rotation. The disk then underwent a dramatic transformation to a "boiling phase", in which the star formation efficiency increased substantially, the kinematics became disk-like, and the number of stars formed increased tenfold. We interpret this transformation as the birth of the Galactic disk at z~4. The physical origin of this transformation is unclear and does not seem to be reproduced in current galaxy formation models.
title Birth of the Galactic Disk Revealed by the H3 Survey
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.02989