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arXiv 1410.6166astro-ph.GA
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从化学吸收比分布重建银河系星晕的吸积历史

Reconstructing the Accretion History of the Galactic Stellar Halo from Chemical Abundance Ratio Distributions

Duane M. Lee, Kathryn V. Johnston, Bodhisattva Sen, Will Jessop

摘要:

在过去的二十年中,晕星的观测研究已经对吸积矮星系对银河系恒星晕的贡献的数量和性质进行了一些限制,通常利用恒星相空间信息来识别最近的晕吸积事件。在这项研究中,我们测试的前景,使用2-D化学丰度比分布(CARDs)中发现的恒星晕的恒星,以确定其形成历史。首先,我们使用模拟数据从11个“MW样”晕生成卫星模板集的2-D CARD的吸积矮卫星,其中包括从各种质量制度和时代的吸积矮星。接下来,我们从这11个晕中随机抽取恒星化学丰度比([ $α$ /Fe],[Fe/H])的$\sim10^{3-4}$模拟观测样本,为我们的CARD生成潜在密度样本,以便在我们的分析中与我们的模板进行比较。最后,我们使用的期望最大化算法来获得吸积的历史中使用的卫星模板集(STS)和样本大小。对于某些STS使用,我们通常可以确定所有吸积卫星的相对质量贡献在2倍之内。我们还发现,这种方法是特别敏感的老吸积事件涉及低亮度的矮星,如超暗矮星-正是那些事件太古老,被看到的恒星的相空间研究和太暗,被看到的早期宇宙的高z研究。由于我们的结果只利用两个化学维度和不久的将来的调查承诺提供$\sim6-9$尺寸,我们的结论是,这些新的高分辨率光谱调查的恒星晕将使我们能够恢复其吸积历史-和亮度功能的矮星系-整个宇宙的时间。

英文摘要:

Observational studies of halo stars during the last two decades have placed some limits on the quantity and nature of accreted dwarf galaxy contributions to the Milky Way stellar halo by typically utilizing stellar phase-space information to identify the most recent halo accretion events. In this study we tested the prospects of using 2-D chemical abundance ratio distributions (CARDs) found in stars of the stellar halo to determine its formation history. First, we used simulated data from eleven "MW-like" halos to generate satellite template sets of 2-D CARDs of accreted dwarf satellites which are comprised of accreted dwarfs from various mass regimes and epochs of accretion. Next, we randomly drew samples of $\sim10^{3-4}$ mock observations of stellar chemical abundance ratios ([$α$/Fe], [Fe/H]) from those eleven halos to generate samples of the underlying densities for our CARDs to be compared to our templates in our analysis. Finally, we used the expectation-maximization algorithm to derive accretion histories in relation to the satellite template set (STS) used and the sample size. For certain STS used we typically can identify the relative mass contributions of all accreted satellites to within a factor of 2. We also find that this method is particularly sensitive to older accretion events involving low-luminous dwarfs e.g. ultra-faint dwarfs - precisely those events that are too ancient to be seen by phase-space studies of stars and too faint to be seen by high-z studies of the early Universe. Since our results only exploit two chemical dimensions and near-future surveys promise to provide $\sim6-9$ dimensions, we conclude that these new high-resolution spectroscopic surveys of the stellar halo will allow us to recover its accretion history - and the luminosity function of infalling dwarf galaxies - across cosmic time.

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