APOGEE discovery of a chemically atypical star disrupted from NGC 6723 and captured by the Milky Way bulge
José G. Fernández-Trincado, Timothy C. Beers, Dante Minniti, Leticia Carigi, Vinicius M. Placco, Sang-Hyun Chun, Richard R. Lane, Doug Geisler, Sandro Villanova… 展开作者
José G. Fernández-Trincado, Timothy C. Beers, Dante Minniti, Leticia Carigi, Vinicius M. Placco, Sang-Hyun Chun, Richard R. Lane, Doug Geisler, Sandro Villanova, Stefano O. Souza, Beatriz Barbuy, Angeles Pérez-Villegas, Cristina Chiappini, Anna. B. A. Queiroz, Baitian Tang, Javier Alonso-García, Andrés E. Piatti, Tali Palma, Alan Alves-Brito, Christian Moni Bidin, Alexandre Roman-Lopes, Ricardo R. Muñoz, Harinder P. Singh, Richa Kundu, Leonardo Chaves-Velasquez, María Romero-Colmenares, Penelope Longa-Peña, Mario Soto, Katherine Vieira
The central (`bulge') region of the Milky Way is teeming with a significant fraction of mildly metal-deficient stars with atmospheres that are strongly enriched in cyanogen ($^{12}$C$^{14}$N). Some of these objects, which are also known as nitrogen-enhanced stars, are hypothesised to be relics of the ancient assembly history of the Milky Way. Although the chemical similarity of nitrogen-enhanced stars to the unique chemical patterns observed in globular clusters has been observed, a direct connection between field stars and globular clusters has not yet been proven. In this work, we report on high-resolution, near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the bulge globular cluster NGC 6723, and the serendipitous discovery of a star, 2M18594405$-$3651518, located outside the cluster (near the tidal radius) but moving on a similar orbit, providing the first clear piece of evidence of a star that was very likely once a cluster member and has recently been ejected. Its nitrogen abundance ratio ([N/Fe]$\gtrsim + 0.94$) is well above the typical Galactic field-star levels, and it exhibits noticeable enrichment in the heavy $s$-process elements (Ce, Nd, and Yb), along with moderate carbon enrichment; all characteristics are known examples in globular clusters. This result suggests that some of the nitrogen-enhanced stars in the bulge likely originated from the tidal disruption of globular clusters.
We combine spectroscopic, photometric, and astrometric information from APOGEE data release 17 and $Gaia$ early data release 3 to perform a self-consistent characterization of $Gaia$-Sausage/Enceladus (GSE), the remnant of the last major merger experienced by the Milky Way, considering stars and globular clusters (GCs) altogether. Our novel set of chemodynamical criteria to select genuine stars of GSE yields a metallicity distribution function with a median [Fe/H] of $-1.22$ dex and $0.23$ dex dispersion. Stars from GSE present an excess of [Al/Fe] and [Mg/Mn] (also [Mg/Fe]) in comparison to s…
By performing an orbital analysis within a Galactic model including a bar, we found that it is plausible that the newly discovered stars that show enhanced Al and N accompanied by Mg underabundances may have formed in the outer halo, or were brought in by satellites field possibly accreted a long time ago. However, another subsample of three N- and Al-rich stars with Mg-deficiency are kinematically consistent with the inner stellar halo. A speculative scenario to explain the origin of the atypical chemical composition of these stars in the inner halo is that they migrated to the inner stellar …
Stars born from the same molecular cloud should be nearly homogeneous in their element abundances. The concept of chemical tagging is to identify members of disrupted clusters by their clustering in element abundance space. Chemical tagging requires large samples of stars with precise abundances for many individual elements. With uncertainties of $σ_{[X/{\rm Fe}]}$ and $σ_{\rm [Fe/H]} \simeq 0.05$ for 10 elements measured for $>10^4$ stars, the APOGEE DR12 spectra may be the first well-suited data set to put this idea into practice. We find that even APOGEE data offer only $\sim 500$ independe…
Recent results from chemical tagging studies using APOGEE data suggest a strong link between the chemical abundance patterns of stars found within globular clusters, and chemically peculiar populations in the Galactic halo field. In this paper we analyse the chemical compositions of stars within the cluster body and tidal streams of Palomar 5, a globular cluster that is being tidally disrupted by interaction with the Galactic gravitational potential. We report the identification of nitrogen-rich (N-rich) stars both within and beyond the tidal radius of Palomar 5, with the latter being clearly …
The contribution of dissolved globular clusters (GCs) to the stellar content of the Galactic halo is a key constraint on models for GC formation and destruction, and the mass assembly history of the Milky Way. Earlier results from APOGEE pointed to a large contribution of destroyed GCs to the stellar content of the inner halo, by as much as 25$\%$, which is an order of magnitude larger than previous estimates for more distant regions of the halo. We set out to measure the ratio between N-rich and normal halo field stars, as a function of distance, by performing density modelling of halo field …
The SDSS-IV Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey has obtained high-resolution spectra for thousands of red giant stars distributed among the massive satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (MW): the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC), the Sagittarius Dwarf (Sgr), Fornax (Fnx), and the now fully disrupted \emph{Gaia} Sausage/Enceladus (GSE) system. We present and analyze the APOGEE chemical abundance patterns of each galaxy to draw robust conclusions about their star formation histories, by quantifying the relative abundance trends of multiple elements (C,…
We report the peculiar chemical abundance patterns of eleven atypical Milky Way (MW) field red giant stars observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). These atypical giants exhibit strong Al and N enhancements accompanied by C and Mg depletions, strikingly similar to those observed in the so-called second-generation (SG) stars of globular clusters (GCs). Remarkably, we find low-Mg abundances ([Mg/Fe]$<$0.0) together with strong Al and N overabundances in the majority (5/7) of the metal-rich ([Fe/H]$\gtrsim - 1.0$) sample stars, which is at odds with actual …
The disrupted chemical enrichment history of the Milky Way driven by gas accretion
South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University（西南天文研究所，云南大学）；Yunnan Key Laboratory of Survey Science, Yunnan University（云南省测绘科学重点实验室，云南大学）；Department of Astronomy, Xiamen University（天文学系，厦门大学）；Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge（天文学研究所，剑桥大学）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（天文与空间科学学院，中国科学院大学）；National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（国家天文台，中国科学院）；Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University（天文与天体物理前沿研究院，北京师范大学）；Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences（射电天文与技术重点实验室，中国科学院）
Dynamically cold stellar streams are the relics left over from globular cluster dissolution. These relics offer a unique insight into a now fully disrupted population of ancient clusters in our Galaxy. Using a combination of Gaia eDR3 proper motions, optical and near-UV colours we select a sample of likely Red Giant Branch stars from the GD-1 stream for medium-low resolution spectroscopic follow-up. Based on radial velocity and metallicity, we are able to find 14 new members of GD-1, 5 of which are associated with the \emph{spur} and \emph{blob/cocoon} off-stream features. We measured C-abunda…
The latest edition of the APOGEE-2/DR14 survey catalogue and the first \texttt{Payne} data release of APOGEE abundance determinations by Ting et al. are examined. We identify 31 previously unremarked metal-poor giant stars with anomalously high levels of nitrogen in the chemical space defined by [Fe/H] and [N/Fe]. The APOGEE chemical abundance patterns of such objects revealed that these are chemically distinct from the Milky Way (MW) in most chemical elements. We have found all these objects have a [N/Fe]$>+0.5$, and are thus identified here as nitrogen-rich stars. An orbital analysis of thes…
oMEGACat. X. Shedding light on the disrupted dwarf galaxy of Omega Centauri
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；University of Utah（犹他大学）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Universität Heidelberg（海德堡大学）；Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg（海德堡大学天体物理计算研究所）；Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Landessternwarte（海德堡大学天文学中心，州立天文台）
In this work, we derive a spatially resolved map of the line-of-sight velocity of the interstellar medium and use it, along with a second map of line-of-sight velocity from Paper I of this series, to determine the nature of gaseous spiral structure in the Milky Way. This map is derived from measurements of the 1.527 $μ$m diffuse interstellar band (DIB) in stellar spectra from the APOGEE survey and covers the nearest 4-5 kpc of the Northern Galactic plane. We cross-check this new DIB-based line-of-sight velocity map with the map derived in Paper I and find that they agree. We then compare these…
We present a method to determine nitrogen abundance ratios with respect to iron ([N/Fe]) from molecular CN-band features observed in low-resolution ($R \sim$ 2000) stellar spectra obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST). Various tests are carried out to check the systematic and random errors of our technique, and the impact of signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios of stellar spectra on the determined [N/Fe]. We find that the uncertainty of our derived [N/Fe] is less than 0.3 dex for S/N ratios larger than 10 in the range…
The Nephele ecosystem: stars, globular clusters, and stellar streams associated with the progenitor galaxy of $ω$ Centauri
LIRA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS（巴黎天文台，巴黎文理研究大学，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学，塞吉-蓬图瓦兹大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg（斯特拉斯堡大学，法国国家科学研究中心，斯特拉斯堡天文台）；Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”（罗马第一大学物理系）；Institute for Complex Systems CNR（意大利国家研究委员会复杂系统研究所）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学伽利略·伽利莱物理与天文学系）；Dipartimento di Tecnica e Gestione dei Sistemi Industriali, Università degli Studi di Padova（帕多瓦大学工业系统技术与管理系）
