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Elemental abundance trends in the Galactic thin and thick disks as traced by nearby F and G dwarf stars

Bensby, Thomas LU orcid ; Feltzing, Sofia LU orcid and Lundström, Ingemar LU (2003) In Astronomy & Astrophysics 410(2). p.527-551
Abstract
Based on spectra from F and G dwarf stars, we present elementalabundance trends in the Galactic thin and thick disks in the metallicityregime -0.8< [Fe/H < +0.4. Our findings can besummarized as follows. 1) Both the thin and the thick disks show smoothand distinct abundance trends that, at sub-solar metallicities, areclearly separated. 2) For the alpha -elements the thick disk showssignatures of chemical enrichment from SNe type Ia. 3) The age of thethick disk sample is in the mean older than the thin disk sample. 4)Kinematically, there exist thick disk stars with super-solarmetallicities. Based on these findings, together with other constraintsfrom the literature, we discuss different formation scenarios for thethick disk. We... (More)
Based on spectra from F and G dwarf stars, we present elementalabundance trends in the Galactic thin and thick disks in the metallicityregime -0.8< [Fe/H < +0.4. Our findings can besummarized as follows. 1) Both the thin and the thick disks show smoothand distinct abundance trends that, at sub-solar metallicities, areclearly separated. 2) For the alpha -elements the thick disk showssignatures of chemical enrichment from SNe type Ia. 3) The age of thethick disk sample is in the mean older than the thin disk sample. 4)Kinematically, there exist thick disk stars with super-solarmetallicities. Based on these findings, together with other constraintsfrom the literature, we discuss different formation scenarios for thethick disk. We suggest that the currently most likely formation scenariois a violent merger event or a close encounter with a companion galaxy.Based on kinematics the stellar sample was selected to contain starswith high probabilities of belonging either to the thin or to the thickGalactic disk. The total number of stars are 66 of which 21 belong tothe thick disk and 45 to the thin disk. The analysis is based onhigh-resolution spectra with high signal-to-noise (R 48 000 and S/Ngtrsim 150, respectively) recorded with the FEROS spectrograph on LaSilla, Chile. Abundances have been determined for four alpha -elements(Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti), for four even-nuclei iron peak elements (Cr, Fe,Ni, and Zn), and for the light elements Na and Al, from equivalent widthmeasurements of 30 000 spectral lines. An extensive investigation ofthe atomic parameters, log gf-values in particular, have been performedin order to achieve abundances that are trustworthy. Noteworthy is thatwe find for Ti good agreement between the abundances from Ti I and TiIi. Our solar Ti abundances are in concordance with the standardmeteoritic Ti abundanceBased on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, LaSilla, Chile, Proposals #65.L-0019(B) and 67.B-0108(B).Full Tables

eftab:linelist and

eftab:abundances are onlyavailable in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp tocdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/410/527 (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Galaxy: formation, stars: fundamental parameters, stars: abundances, Galaxy: disk, Galaxy: abundances, Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics
in
Astronomy & Astrophysics
volume
410
issue
2
pages
527 - 551
publisher
EDP Sciences
external identifiers
  • wos:000185917300018
  • scopus:0242291973
ISSN
0004-6361
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361:20031213
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7f010779-ff67-4deb-9efa-009778e9b455 (old id 130495)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 15:26:12
date last changed
2022-12-12 04:20:47
@article{7f010779-ff67-4deb-9efa-009778e9b455,
  abstract     = {{Based on spectra from F and G dwarf stars, we present elementalabundance trends in the Galactic thin and thick disks in the metallicityregime -0.8&lt; [Fe/H &lt; +0.4. Our findings can besummarized as follows. 1) Both the thin and the thick disks show smoothand distinct abundance trends that, at sub-solar metallicities, areclearly separated. 2) For the alpha -elements the thick disk showssignatures of chemical enrichment from SNe type Ia. 3) The age of thethick disk sample is in the mean older than the thin disk sample. 4)Kinematically, there exist thick disk stars with super-solarmetallicities. Based on these findings, together with other constraintsfrom the literature, we discuss different formation scenarios for thethick disk. We suggest that the currently most likely formation scenariois a violent merger event or a close encounter with a companion galaxy.Based on kinematics the stellar sample was selected to contain starswith high probabilities of belonging either to the thin or to the thickGalactic disk. The total number of stars are 66 of which 21 belong tothe thick disk and 45 to the thin disk. The analysis is based onhigh-resolution spectra with high signal-to-noise (R 48 000 and S/Ngtrsim 150, respectively) recorded with the FEROS spectrograph on LaSilla, Chile. Abundances have been determined for four alpha -elements(Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti), for four even-nuclei iron peak elements (Cr, Fe,Ni, and Zn), and for the light elements Na and Al, from equivalent widthmeasurements of 30 000 spectral lines. An extensive investigation ofthe atomic parameters, log gf-values in particular, have been performedin order to achieve abundances that are trustworthy. Noteworthy is thatwe find for Ti good agreement between the abundances from Ti I and TiIi. Our solar Ti abundances are in concordance with the standardmeteoritic Ti abundanceBased on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, LaSilla, Chile, Proposals #65.L-0019(B) and 67.B-0108(B).Full Tables <br/><br>
eftab:linelist and <br/><br>
eftab:abundances are onlyavailable in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp tocdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/410/527}},
  author       = {{Bensby, Thomas and Feltzing, Sofia and Lundström, Ingemar}},
  issn         = {{0004-6361}},
  keywords     = {{Galaxy: formation; stars: fundamental parameters; stars: abundances; Galaxy: disk; Galaxy: abundances; Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{527--551}},
  publisher    = {{EDP Sciences}},
  series       = {{Astronomy & Astrophysics}},
  title        = {{Elemental abundance trends in the Galactic thin and thick disks as traced by nearby F and G dwarf stars}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/4392404/624151.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1051/0004-6361:20031213}},
  volume       = {{410}},
  year         = {{2003}},
}