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arXiv 1111.1724astro-ph.GA
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Milky Way圆盘单丰度亚种群的空间结构

The spatial structure of mono-abundance sub-populations of the Milky Way disk

Jo Bovy, Hans-Walter Rix, Chao Liu, David W. Hogg, Timothy C. Beers, Young Sun Lee

摘要:

银河系恒星盘的空间、运动学和元素丰度结构都很复杂,很难用局部光谱或全球光度数据来分析。在这里,我们开发并应用了一种严格的密度建模方法用于银河系光谱调查,该方法可以使用SDSS/SEGUE的23,767颗G型矮星,在[α/Fe]和[Fe/H]的窄箱中调查恒星子种群的全球空间结构。我们适合模型的数量密度的每个这样的单丰度组件,适当占复杂的光谱SEGUE采样的基础恒星星族。我们发现,每个单丰度亚种群都有一个简单的空间结构,可以用垂直和径向的单一指数来描述,随着年龄的增加,尺度高度不断增加(~200 pc至1 kpc),尺度长度不断减小(>4.5 kpc至2 kpc),这表明它们的金属丰度较低,[α/Fe]增强。具有最大尺度高度的丰度选择子组分具有最短尺度长度,这与纯粹的几何“厚-薄盘”分解形成鲜明对比。在某种程度上,[α/Fe]是年龄的适当代理,我们的结果直接表明,较老的磁盘子人口更集中,这意味着由内而外形成的星系盘。事实上,最大的尺度高度子分量集中在银河系的中心,这几乎是通过内部演化来解释盘的垂直结构的必然结果。单丰度子组分的简单空间结构,以及年龄、尺度长度和尺度高度之间的显著相关性是否可以通过卫星吸积或其他外部加热来解释,还有待观察。

英文摘要:

The spatial, kinematic, and elemental-abundance structure of the Milky Way's stellar disk is complex, and has been difficult to dissect with local spectroscopic or global photometric data. Here, we develop and apply a rigorous density modeling approach for Galactic spectroscopic surveys that enables investigation of the global spatial structure of stellar sub-populations in narrow bins of [α/Fe] and [Fe/H], using 23,767 G-type dwarfs from SDSS/SEGUE. We fit models for the number density of each such mono-abundance component, properly accounting for the complex spectroscopic SEGUE sampling of the underlying stellar population. We find that each mono-abundance sub-population has a simple spatial structure that can be described by a single exponential in both the vertical and radial direction, with continuously increasing scale heights (~200 pc to 1 kpc) and decreasing scale lengths (>4.5 kpc to 2 kpc) for increasingly older sub-populations, as indicated by their lower metallicities and [α/Fe] enhancements. That the abundance-selected sub-components with the largest scale heights have the shortest scale lengths is in sharp contrast with purely geometric `thick--thin disk' decompositions. To the extent that [α/Fe] is an adequate proxy for age, our results directly show that older disk sub-populations are more centrally concentrated, which implies inside-out formation of galactic disks. The fact that the largest scale-height sub-components are most centrally concentrated in the Milky Way is an almost inevitable consequence of explaining the vertical structure of the disk through internal evolution. Whether the simple spatial structure of the mono-abundance sub-components, and the striking correlations between age, scale length, and scale height can be plausibly explained by satellite accretion or other external heating remains to be seen.

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