Probing the strength of radial migration via churning by using metal-rich red giant stars from APOGEE

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lehmann, Christian, Feltzing, Sofia, Feuillet, Diane, Kordopatis, Georges
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915059757744128
author Lehmann, Christian
Feltzing, Sofia
Feuillet, Diane
Kordopatis, Georges
author_facet Lehmann, Christian
Feltzing, Sofia
Feuillet, Diane
Kordopatis, Georges
contents Making use of the APOGEE DR17 catalogue with high quality data for 143,509 red giant branch stars we explore the strength of different mechanisms that causes a star to radially migrate in the Milky Way stellar disk. At any position in the disk we find stars that are more metal-rich than the local interstellar medium. This is surprising and normally attributed to the migration of these stars after their formation inside their current Galactocentric-radius. Such stars are prime candidates for studying the strength of different migratory processes. We specifically select two types of metal-rich stars: i) super metal-rich stars ([Fe/H] > 0.2) and ii) stars that are more metal-rich than their local environment. For both, we explore the distribution of orbital parameters and ages as evidence of their migration history. We find that most super metal-rich stars have experienced some amount of churning as they have orbits with Rg >= 5 kpc. Furthermore, about half of the super metal-rich stars are on non-circular orbits (ecc > 0.15) and therefore also have experienced blurring. The metallicity of young stars in our sample is generally the same as the metallicity of the interstellar medium, suggesting they have not radially migrated yet. Stars with lower metallicity than the local environment have intermediate to old ages. We further find that super metal-rich stars have approximately the same age distribution at all Galactocentric-radii, which suggests that radial migration is a key mechanism responsible for the chemical compositions of stellar populations in the Milky Way.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_19089
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probing the strength of radial migration via churning by using metal-rich red giant stars from APOGEE
Lehmann, Christian
Feltzing, Sofia
Feuillet, Diane
Kordopatis, Georges
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Making use of the APOGEE DR17 catalogue with high quality data for 143,509 red giant branch stars we explore the strength of different mechanisms that causes a star to radially migrate in the Milky Way stellar disk. At any position in the disk we find stars that are more metal-rich than the local interstellar medium. This is surprising and normally attributed to the migration of these stars after their formation inside their current Galactocentric-radius. Such stars are prime candidates for studying the strength of different migratory processes. We specifically select two types of metal-rich stars: i) super metal-rich stars ([Fe/H] > 0.2) and ii) stars that are more metal-rich than their local environment. For both, we explore the distribution of orbital parameters and ages as evidence of their migration history. We find that most super metal-rich stars have experienced some amount of churning as they have orbits with Rg >= 5 kpc. Furthermore, about half of the super metal-rich stars are on non-circular orbits (ecc > 0.15) and therefore also have experienced blurring. The metallicity of young stars in our sample is generally the same as the metallicity of the interstellar medium, suggesting they have not radially migrated yet. Stars with lower metallicity than the local environment have intermediate to old ages. We further find that super metal-rich stars have approximately the same age distribution at all Galactocentric-radii, which suggests that radial migration is a key mechanism responsible for the chemical compositions of stellar populations in the Milky Way.
title Probing the strength of radial migration via churning by using metal-rich red giant stars from APOGEE
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19089