Many elements matter: Detailed abundance patterns reveal star-formation and enrichment differences among Milky Way structural components

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Griffith, Emily J., Hogg, David W., Hasselquist, Sten, Johnson, James W., Price-Whelan, Adrian, Sit, Tawny, Stone-Martinez, Alexander, Weinberg, David H.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Griffith, Emily J.
Hogg, David W.
Hasselquist, Sten
Johnson, James W.
Price-Whelan, Adrian
Sit, Tawny
Stone-Martinez, Alexander
Weinberg, David H.
author_facet Griffith, Emily J.
Hogg, David W.
Hasselquist, Sten
Johnson, James W.
Price-Whelan, Adrian
Sit, Tawny
Stone-Martinez, Alexander
Weinberg, David H.
contents Many nucleosynthetic channels create the elements, but two-parameter models characterized by $α$ and Fe nonetheless predict stellar abundances in the Galactic disk to accuracies of 0.02 to 0.05 dex for most measured elements, near the level of current abundance uncertainties. It is difficult to make individual measurements more precise than this to investigate lower-amplitude nucleosynthetic effects, but population studies of mean abundance patterns can reveal more subtle abundance differences. Here we look at the detailed abundances for 67315 stars from APOGEE DR17, but in the form of abundance residuals away from a best-fit two-parameter, data-driven nucleosynthetic model. We find that these residuals show complex structures with respect to age, guiding radius, and vertical action that are not random and are also not strongly correlated with sources of systematic error such as surface gravity, effective temperature, and radial velocity. The residual patterns, especially in Na, C+N, Ni, Mn, and Ce, trace kinematic structures in the Milky Way, such as the inner disk, thick disk, and flared outer disk. A principal component analysis suggests that most of the observed structure is low-dimensional and can be explained by a few eigenvectors. We find that some, but not all, of the effects in the low-$α$ disk can be explained by dilution with fresh gas, so that abundance ratios resemble those of stars with higher metallicity. The patterns and maps we provide could be combined with accurate forward models of nucleosynthesis, star formation, and gas infall to provide a more detailed picture of star and element formation in different Milky Way components.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_22121
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Many elements matter: Detailed abundance patterns reveal star-formation and enrichment differences among Milky Way structural components
Griffith, Emily J.
Hogg, David W.
Hasselquist, Sten
Johnson, James W.
Price-Whelan, Adrian
Sit, Tawny
Stone-Martinez, Alexander
Weinberg, David H.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Many nucleosynthetic channels create the elements, but two-parameter models characterized by $α$ and Fe nonetheless predict stellar abundances in the Galactic disk to accuracies of 0.02 to 0.05 dex for most measured elements, near the level of current abundance uncertainties. It is difficult to make individual measurements more precise than this to investigate lower-amplitude nucleosynthetic effects, but population studies of mean abundance patterns can reveal more subtle abundance differences. Here we look at the detailed abundances for 67315 stars from APOGEE DR17, but in the form of abundance residuals away from a best-fit two-parameter, data-driven nucleosynthetic model. We find that these residuals show complex structures with respect to age, guiding radius, and vertical action that are not random and are also not strongly correlated with sources of systematic error such as surface gravity, effective temperature, and radial velocity. The residual patterns, especially in Na, C+N, Ni, Mn, and Ce, trace kinematic structures in the Milky Way, such as the inner disk, thick disk, and flared outer disk. A principal component analysis suggests that most of the observed structure is low-dimensional and can be explained by a few eigenvectors. We find that some, but not all, of the effects in the low-$α$ disk can be explained by dilution with fresh gas, so that abundance ratios resemble those of stars with higher metallicity. The patterns and maps we provide could be combined with accurate forward models of nucleosynthesis, star formation, and gas infall to provide a more detailed picture of star and element formation in different Milky Way components.
title Many elements matter: Detailed abundance patterns reveal star-formation and enrichment differences among Milky Way structural components
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.22121