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The solar neighbourhood age-metallicity relation - Does it exist?

Feltzing, Sofia LU orcid ; Holmberg, Johan LU and Hurley, J R (2001) In Astronomy & Astrophysics 377. p.911-924
Abstract
We derive stellar ages, from evolutionary tracks, and metallicities,from Strömgren photometry, for a sample of 5828 dwarf and sub-dwarfstars from the Hipparcos Catalogue. This stellar disk sample is used toinvestigate the age-metallicity diagram in the solar neighbourhood. Suchdiagrams are often used to derive a so called age-metallicity relation.Because of the size of our sample, we are able to quantify the impact onsuch diagrams, and derived relations, due to different selectioneffects. Some of these effects are of a more subtle sort, giving rise toerroneous conclusions. In particular we show that [1] theage-metallicity diagram is well populated at all ages and especiallythat old, metal-rich stars do exist, [2] the scatter in metallicity... (More)
We derive stellar ages, from evolutionary tracks, and metallicities,from Strömgren photometry, for a sample of 5828 dwarf and sub-dwarfstars from the Hipparcos Catalogue. This stellar disk sample is used toinvestigate the age-metallicity diagram in the solar neighbourhood. Suchdiagrams are often used to derive a so called age-metallicity relation.Because of the size of our sample, we are able to quantify the impact onsuch diagrams, and derived relations, due to different selectioneffects. Some of these effects are of a more subtle sort, giving rise toerroneous conclusions. In particular we show that [1] theage-metallicity diagram is well populated at all ages and especiallythat old, metal-rich stars do exist, [2] the scatter in metallicity atany given age is larger than the observational errors, [3] the exclusionof cooler dwarf stars from an age-metallicity sample preferentiallyexcludes old, metal-rich stars, depleting the upper right-hand corner ofthe age-metallicity diagram, [4] the distance dependence found in theEdvardsson et al. sample by Garnett & Kobulnicky is an expectedartifact due to the construction of the original sample. We concludethat, although some of it can be attributed to stellar migration in thegalactic disk, a large part of the observed scatter is intrinsic to theformation processes of stars. Based on results from the ESA Hipparcossatellite. Full Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/377/911 (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Astronomy & Astrophysics
volume
377
pages
911 - 924
publisher
EDP Sciences
external identifiers
  • scopus:0035474653
ISSN
0004-6361
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361:20011119
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e0d374b7-9a81-4b8d-ada4-f724b6a1a271 (old id 130147)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 16:32:11
date last changed
2024-01-11 09:29:21
@article{e0d374b7-9a81-4b8d-ada4-f724b6a1a271,
  abstract     = {{We derive stellar ages, from evolutionary tracks, and metallicities,from Strömgren photometry, for a sample of 5828 dwarf and sub-dwarfstars from the Hipparcos Catalogue. This stellar disk sample is used toinvestigate the age-metallicity diagram in the solar neighbourhood. Suchdiagrams are often used to derive a so called age-metallicity relation.Because of the size of our sample, we are able to quantify the impact onsuch diagrams, and derived relations, due to different selectioneffects. Some of these effects are of a more subtle sort, giving rise toerroneous conclusions. In particular we show that [1] theage-metallicity diagram is well populated at all ages and especiallythat old, metal-rich stars do exist, [2] the scatter in metallicity atany given age is larger than the observational errors, [3] the exclusionof cooler dwarf stars from an age-metallicity sample preferentiallyexcludes old, metal-rich stars, depleting the upper right-hand corner ofthe age-metallicity diagram, [4] the distance dependence found in theEdvardsson et al. sample by Garnett & Kobulnicky is an expectedartifact due to the construction of the original sample. We concludethat, although some of it can be attributed to stellar migration in thegalactic disk, a large part of the observed scatter is intrinsic to theformation processes of stars. Based on results from the ESA Hipparcossatellite. Full Table 1 is only available in electronic form at the CDSvia anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttp://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/377/911}},
  author       = {{Feltzing, Sofia and Holmberg, Johan and Hurley, J R}},
  issn         = {{0004-6361}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{911--924}},
  publisher    = {{EDP Sciences}},
  series       = {{Astronomy & Astrophysics}},
  title        = {{The solar neighbourhood age-metallicity relation - Does it exist?}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/4701625/624122.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1051/0004-6361:20011119}},
  volume       = {{377}},
  year         = {{2001}},
}