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Stellar escapers from M67 can reach solar-like Galactic orbits

Jørgensen, Timmi G. LU and Church, Ross P. LU orcid (2020) In Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 492(4). p.4959-4974
Abstract
We investigate the possibility that the Sun could have been born in M67 by carrying out N-body simulations of M67-like clusters in a time-varying Galactic environment, and following the Galactic orbits of stars that escape from them. We find that model clusters that occupy similar orbits to M67 today can be divided up into three groups, which we call hot, depleted, and scattered clusters. Hot clusters are born with a high initial z-velocity; depleted clusters are born on dynamically cold orbits but are destroyed by GMC encounters in the Galactic disc; and scattered clusters are born on dynamically cold orbits and survive to have more than 1000 stars at an age of 4.6 Gyr. We find that all cluster models in all three cluster groups have... (More)
We investigate the possibility that the Sun could have been born in M67 by carrying out N-body simulations of M67-like clusters in a time-varying Galactic environment, and following the Galactic orbits of stars that escape from them. We find that model clusters that occupy similar orbits to M67 today can be divided up into three groups, which we call hot, depleted, and scattered clusters. Hot clusters are born with a high initial z-velocity; depleted clusters are born on dynamically cold orbits but are destroyed by GMC encounters in the Galactic disc; and scattered clusters are born on dynamically cold orbits and survive to have more than 1000 stars at an age of 4.6 Gyr. We find that all cluster models in all three cluster groups have stellar escapers that are kinematically similar to the Sun. Hot clusters have the lowest fraction of escapers with solar-like kinematics, f⊙ = 0.06 per cent, whilst depleted clusters have the highest fraction, f⊙ = 6.61 per cent. We calculate that clusters that are destroyed in the Galactic disc have a specific frequency of escapers that end up on solar-like orbits that is ∼ 2 times that of escapers from clusters that survive their journey. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
galaxy: open clusters and associations: individual: M67, stars: kinematics and dynamics, galaxy: kinematics and dynamics, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
volume
492
issue
4
pages
16 pages
publisher
Oxford University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85087371794
ISSN
1365-2966
DOI
10.1093/mnras/staa185
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d8df18e3-98a0-4ea3-95ef-39566cbe92a0
date added to LUP
2022-03-28 13:14:59
date last changed
2024-03-07 22:53:16
@article{d8df18e3-98a0-4ea3-95ef-39566cbe92a0,
  abstract     = {{We investigate the possibility that the Sun could have been born in M67 by carrying out N-body simulations of M67-like clusters in a time-varying Galactic environment, and following the Galactic orbits of stars that escape from them. We find that model clusters that occupy similar orbits to M67 today can be divided up into three groups, which we call hot, depleted, and scattered clusters. Hot clusters are born with a high initial z-velocity; depleted clusters are born on dynamically cold orbits but are destroyed by GMC encounters in the Galactic disc; and scattered clusters are born on dynamically cold orbits and survive to have more than 1000 stars at an age of 4.6 Gyr. We find that all cluster models in all three cluster groups have stellar escapers that are kinematically similar to the Sun. Hot clusters have the lowest fraction of escapers with solar-like kinematics, f⊙ = 0.06 per cent, whilst depleted clusters have the highest fraction, f⊙ = 6.61 per cent. We calculate that clusters that are destroyed in the Galactic disc have a specific frequency of escapers that end up on solar-like orbits that is ∼ 2 times that of escapers from clusters that survive their journey.}},
  author       = {{Jørgensen, Timmi G. and Church, Ross P.}},
  issn         = {{1365-2966}},
  keywords     = {{galaxy: open clusters and associations: individual: M67; stars: kinematics and dynamics; galaxy: kinematics and dynamics; Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{4959--4974}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}},
  title        = {{Stellar escapers from M67 can reach solar-like Galactic orbits}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa185}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/mnras/staa185}},
  volume       = {{492}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}