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Constraining churning and blurring in the Milky Way using large spectroscopic surveys - An exploratory study

Feltzing, Sofia LU orcid ; Bowers, J. Bradley and Agertz, Oscar LU (2020) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 493(1). p.1419-1433
Abstract

We have investigated the possibilities to quantify how much stars move in theMilkyWay disc due to diffuse processes (blurring) and due to influences from spiral arms and the bar (churning). We assume that the formation radius of a star can be inferred if we know its elemental abundances and age and the metallicity profile of the interstellar medium at the time of the star's formation. We use data for red giant branch stars from APOGEE DR14, parallaxes from Gaia, and stellar ages based on the C and N abundances. In our sample, we find that half of the stars have experienced some sort of radial migration, 10 per cent likely have suffered only from churning, and a modest 5-7 per cent have never experienced either churning or blurring... (More)

We have investigated the possibilities to quantify how much stars move in theMilkyWay disc due to diffuse processes (blurring) and due to influences from spiral arms and the bar (churning). We assume that the formation radius of a star can be inferred if we know its elemental abundances and age and the metallicity profile of the interstellar medium at the time of the star's formation. We use data for red giant branch stars from APOGEE DR14, parallaxes from Gaia, and stellar ages based on the C and N abundances. In our sample, we find that half of the stars have experienced some sort of radial migration, 10 per cent likely have suffered only from churning, and a modest 5-7 per cent have never experienced either churning or blurring making them ideal tracers of the original properties of the cool stellar disc. To arrive at these numbers, we imposed the requirement that the stars that are considered to be churned have highly circular orbits. If instead we require that the star has moved away from its formation position and at the same time that its Galactocentric radius at formation did not fall between the apo- and pericentre of its orbit today, we find that about half of the stars have undergone a radial migration. We have thus shown that it is possible to put up a framework to quantify churning and blurring. Future work includes investigations of how selection effects influence the results.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Galaxy: evolution, ISM: abundances, Stars: kinematics and dynamics
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume
493
issue
1
pages
15 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85087359339
ISSN
0035-8711
DOI
10.1093/mnras/staa340
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
05db29b5-fc27-4392-ab98-77c63036cfc0
date added to LUP
2020-12-21 15:09:08
date last changed
2024-04-17 21:34:44
@article{05db29b5-fc27-4392-ab98-77c63036cfc0,
  abstract     = {{<p>We have investigated the possibilities to quantify how much stars move in theMilkyWay disc due to diffuse processes (blurring) and due to influences from spiral arms and the bar (churning). We assume that the formation radius of a star can be inferred if we know its elemental abundances and age and the metallicity profile of the interstellar medium at the time of the star's formation. We use data for red giant branch stars from APOGEE DR14, parallaxes from Gaia, and stellar ages based on the C and N abundances. In our sample, we find that half of the stars have experienced some sort of radial migration, 10 per cent likely have suffered only from churning, and a modest 5-7 per cent have never experienced either churning or blurring making them ideal tracers of the original properties of the cool stellar disc. To arrive at these numbers, we imposed the requirement that the stars that are considered to be churned have highly circular orbits. If instead we require that the star has moved away from its formation position and at the same time that its Galactocentric radius at formation did not fall between the apo- and pericentre of its orbit today, we find that about half of the stars have undergone a radial migration. We have thus shown that it is possible to put up a framework to quantify churning and blurring. Future work includes investigations of how selection effects influence the results. </p>}},
  author       = {{Feltzing, Sofia and Bowers, J. Bradley and Agertz, Oscar}},
  issn         = {{0035-8711}},
  keywords     = {{Galaxy: evolution; ISM: abundances; Stars: kinematics and dynamics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{1419--1433}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{Constraining churning and blurring in the Milky Way using large spectroscopic surveys - An exploratory study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa340}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/mnras/staa340}},
  volume       = {{493}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}