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  • Quantifying radial migratio...
    Lian, Jianhui; Zasowski, Gail; Hasselquist, Sten; Holtzman, Jon A; Boardman, Nicholas; Cunha, Katia; Fernández-Trincado, José G; Frinchaboy, Peter M; Garcia-Hernandez, D A; Nitschelm, Christian; Lane, Richard R; Thomas, Daniel; Zhang, Kai

    Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 03/2022, Volume: 511, Issue: 4
    Journal Article

    ABSTRACT Stellar radial migration plays an important role in reshaping a galaxy’s structure and the radial distribution of stellar population properties. In this work, we revisit reported observational evidence for radial migration and quantify its strength using the age–Fe/H distribution of stars across the Milky Way with APOGEE data. We find a broken age–Fe/H relation in the Galactic disc at r > 6 kpc, with a more pronounced break at larger radii. To quantify the strength of radial migration, we assume stars born at each radius have a unique age and metallicity, and then decompose the metallicity distribution function (MDF) of mono-age young populations into different Gaussian components that originated from various birth radii at rbirth < 13 kpc. We find that, at ages of 2 and 3 Gyr, roughly half the stars were formed within 1 kpc of their present radius, and very few stars (<5 per cent) were formed more than 4 kpc away from their present radius. These results suggest limited short-distance radial migration and inefficient long-distance migration in the Milky Way during the last 3 Gyr. In the very outer disc beyond 15 kpc, the observed age–Fe/H distribution is consistent with the prediction of pure radial migration from smaller radii, suggesting a migration origin of the very outer disc. We also estimate intrinsic metallicity gradients at ages of 2 and 3 Gyr of −0.061 and −0.063 dex kpc−1, respectively.