The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III's Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) is a high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopic survey covering all of the major components of the ...Galaxy, including the dust-obscured regions of the inner Milky Way disk and bulge. Here we present a sample of 10,341 likely red-clump stars (RC) from the first two years of APOGEE operations, selected based on their position in color- metallicity-surface-gravity-effective-temperature space using a new method calibrated using stellar evolution models and high-quality asteroseismology data. The narrowness of the RC locus in color-metallicity-luminosity space allows us to assign distances to the stars with an accuracy of 5%-10%. The sample extends to typical distances of about 3 kpc from the Sun, with some stars out to 8 kpc, and spans a volume of approximately 100 kpc super(3) over 5 kpc lap R lap 14 kpc, |Z| lap 2 kpc, and -15degrees lap Galactocentric azimuth lap 30degrees. The APOGEE red-clump (APOGEE-RC) catalog contains photometry from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, reddening estimates, distances, line-of-sight velocities, stellar parameters and elemental abundances determined from the high-resolution APOGEE spectra, and matches to major proper motion catalogs. We determine the survey selection function for this data set and discuss how the RC selection samples the underlying stellar populations. We use this sample to limit any azimuthal variations in the median metallicity within the approximately 45degrees azimuthal region covered by the current sample to be < or =, slant0.02 dex, which is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the radial metallicity gradient. This result constrains coherent non-axisymmetric flows within a few kiloparsecs from the Sun.
ABSTRACT
Metal-poor stars are important tools for tracing the early history of the Milky Way, and for learning about the first generations of stars. Simulations suggest that the oldest metal-poor ...stars are to be found in the inner Galaxy. Typical bulge surveys, however, lack low metallicity ($\rm {Fe/H} \lt -1.0$) stars because the inner Galaxy is predominantly metal-rich. The aim of the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS) is to study the metal-poor and very metal-poor (VMP, $\rm {Fe/H} \lt -2.0$) stars in this region. In PIGS, metal-poor targets for spectroscopic follow-up are selected from metallicity-sensitive CaHK photometry from the CFHT. This work presents the ∼250 deg2 photometric survey as well as intermediate-resolution spectroscopic follow-up observations for ∼8000 stars using AAOmega on the AAT. The spectra are analysed using two independent tools: ULySS with an empirical spectral library, and FERRE with a library of synthetic spectra. The comparison between the two methods enables a robust determination of the stellar parameters and their uncertainties. We present a sample of 1300 VMP stars – the largest sample of VMP stars in the inner Galaxy to date. Additionally, our spectroscopic data set includes ∼1700 horizontal branch stars, which are useful metal-poor standard candles. We furthermore show that PIGS photometry selects VMP stars with unprecedented efficiency: 86 per cent/80 per cent (lower/higher extinction) of the best candidates satisfy $\rm {Fe/H} \lt -2.0$, as do 80 per cent/63 per cent of a larger, less strictly selected sample. We discuss future applications of this unique data set that will further our understanding of the chemical and dynamical evolution of the innermost regions of our Galaxy.
We present a first determination of distances and extinctions for individual stars in the first release of the APOKASC catalogue, built from the joint efforts of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic ...Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) and the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC). Our method takes into account the spectroscopic constraints derived from the APOGEE Stellar Parameters and Chemical Abundances Pipeline, together with the asteroseismic parameters from KASC. These parameters are then employed to estimate intrinsic stellar properties, including absolute magnitudes, using the Bayesian tool param. We then find the distance and extinction that best fit the observed photometry in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), 2MASS, and WISE passbands. The first 1989 giants targetted by APOKASC are found at typical distances between 0.5 and 5 kpc, with individual uncertainties of just ∼1.8 per cent. Our extinction estimates are systematically smaller than provided in the Kepler Input Catalogue and by the Schlegel et al. maps. Distances to individual stars in the NGC 6791 and NGC 6819 star clusters agree to within their credible intervals. Comparison with the APOGEE red clump and SAGA catalogues provide another useful check, exhibiting agreement with our measurements to within a few per cent. Overall, present methods seem to provide excellent distance and extinction determinations for the bulk of the APOKASC sample. Approximately one third of the stars present broad or multiple-peaked probability density functions and hence increased uncertainties. Uncertainties are expected to be reduced in future releases of the catalogue, when a larger fraction of the stars will have seismically determined evolutionary status classifications.
Abstract We report the first high-resolution, detailed abundances of 21 elements for giants in the Galactic bulge/bar within 1° of the Galactic plane, where high extinction has rendered such studies ...challenging. Our high-signal-to-noise-ratio and high-resolution, near-infrared spectra of seven M giants in the inner bulge, located at ( l , b ) = (0°, +1°), are observed using the IGRINS spectrograph. We report the first multichemical study of the inner Galactic bulge by investigating, relative to a robust new solar neighborhood sample, the abundance trends of 21 elements, including the relatively difficult to study heavy elements. The elements studied are: F, Mg, Si, S, Ca, Na, Al, K, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Ce, Nd, and Yb. We investigate bulge membership of all seven stars using distances and orbital simulations, and we find that the most metal-poor star may be a halo interloper. Our investigation also shows that the inner bulge as close as 1° north of the Galactic Center displays a similarity to the inner disk sequence, following the high- α /Fe envelope of the solar vicinity metal-rich population, though no firm conclusions for a different enrichment history are evident from this sample. We find a small fraction of metal-poor stars (Fe/H > −0.5), but most of our stars are mainly of supersolar metallicity. Fluorine is found to be enhanced at high metallicity compared to the solar neighborhood, but confirmation with a larger sample is required. We will apply this approach to explore the populations of the nuclear stellar disk and the nuclear star cluster.
Abstract
We present a multiwavelength study of the extended green object, G12.42+0.50, in this paper. The associated ionized, dust, and molecular components of this source are studied in detail ...employing various observations at near-, mid- and far-infrared, submillimetre, and radio wavelengths. Radio continuum emission mapped at 610 and 1390 MHz, using the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope, India, advocates for a scenario of coexistence of an UC H ii region and an ionized thermal jet possibly powered by the massive young stellar object, IRAS 18079-1756, with an estimated spectral type of B1-B0.5. Shock-excited lines of H2 and Fe ii, as seen in the near-infrared spectra obtained with UKIRT-UIST, lend support to this picture. Cold dust emission shows a massive clump of mass 1375 M⊙ enveloping G12.42+0.50. Study of the molecular gas kinematics using the MALT90 and JCMT archival data unravels the presence of both infall activity and large-scale outflow suggesting an early stage of massive star formation in G12.42+0.50. A network of filamentary features are also revealed merging with the massive clump, mimicking a hub-filament layout. Velocity structure along these indicates bulk inflow motion.
Large stellar surveys are sensitive to interstellar dust through the effects of reddening. Using extinctions measured from photometry and spectroscopy, together with three-dimensional (3D) positions ...of individual stars, it is possible to construct a three-dimensional dust map. We present the first continuous map of the dust distribution in the Galactic disk out to 7 kpc within 100 pc of the Galactic midplane, using red clump and giant stars from SDSS APOGEE DR14. We use a non-parametric method based on Gaussian Processes to map the dust density, which is the local property of the ISM rather than an integrated quantity. This method models the dust correlation between points in 3D space and can capture arbitrary variations, unconstrained by a pre-specified functional form. This produces a continuous map without line-of-sight artefacts. Our resulting map traces some features of the local Galactic spiral arms, even though the model contains no prior suggestion of spiral arms, nor any underlying model for the Galactic structure. This is the first time that such evident arm structures have been captured by a dust density map in the Milky Way. Our resulting map also traces some of the known giant molecular clouds in the Galaxy and puts some constraints on their distances, some of which were hitherto relatively uncertain.
The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) provides spectroscopic information of regions of the inner Milky Way, which are inaccessible to optical surveys. We present the ...first large study of the metallicity distribution of the innermost Galactic regions based on high-quality measurements for 7545 red giant stars within 4.5 kpc of the Galactic center, with the goal to shed light on the structure and origin of the Galactic bulge. Stellar metallicities are found, through multiple Gaussian decompositions, to be distributed in several components, which is indicative of the presence of various stellar populations such as the bar or the thin and the thick disks. Super-solar (Fe/H = +0.32) and solar (Fe/H = +0.00) metallicity components, tentatively associated with the thin disk and the Galactic bar, respectively, seem to be major contributors near the midplane. A solar-metallicity component extends outwards in the midplane but is not observed in the innermost regions. The central regions (within 3 kpc of the Galactic center) reveal, on the other hand, the presence of a significant metal-poor population (Fe/H = −0.46), tentatively associated with the thick disk, which becomes the dominant component far from the midplane ( kpc). Varying contributions from these different components produce a transition region at +0.5 kpc , characterized by a significant vertical metallicity gradient.
ABSTRACT
A multiwavelength analysis of star formation associated with the extended green object, G19.88-0.53 is presented in this paper. With multiple detected radio and millimetre components, ...G19.88-0.53 unveils as harbouring a protocluster rather than a single massive young stellar object. We detect an ionized thermal jet using the upgraded Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope, India, which is found to be associated with a massive, dense and hot ALMA 2.7 mm core driving a bipolar CO outflow. Near-infrared spectroscopy with UKIRT–UIST shows the presence of multiple shock-excited H2 lines concurrent with the nature of this region. Detailed investigation of the gas kinematics using ALMA data reveals G19.88-0.53 as an active protocluster with high-mass star-forming components spanning a wide evolutionary spectrum from hot cores in accretion phase to cores driving multiple outflows to possible UCH ii regions.
Abstract
To study the demographics of interstellar ices in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way, we obtain near-infrared spectra of 109 red point sources using NASA IRTF/SpeX at ...Maunakea. We select the sample from near- and mid-infrared photometry, including 12 objects in the previous paper of this series, to ensure that these sources trace a large amount of absorption through clouds in each line of sight. We find that most of the sample (100 objects) show CO band-head absorption at 2.3
μ
m, tagging them as red (super-) giants. Despite the photospheric signature, however, a fraction of the sample with
L
-band spectra (9/82 = 0.11) exhibit large H
2
O ice column densities (
N
> 2 × 10
18
cm
−2
), and six of them also reveal CH
3
OH ice absorption. As one of such objects is identified as a young stellar object (YSO) in our previous work, these ice-rich sight lines are likely associated with background stars in projection to an extended envelope of a YSO or a dense cloud core. The low frequency of such objects in the early stage of stellar evolution implies a low star-formation rate (≲0.02
M
⊙
yr
−1
), reinforcing the previous claim on the suppressed star-formation activity in the CMZ. Our data also indicate that the strong “shoulder” CO
2
ice absorption at 15.4
μ
m observed in YSO candidates in the previous paper arises from CH
3
OH-rich ice grains having a large CO
2
concentration
N
(CO
2
)/
N
(CH
3
OH) ≈ 1/3.
ABSTRACT
Our study aims to investigate the outer disc structure of the Milky Way Galaxy using the red clump (RC) stars. We analysed the distribution of the largest sample of RC stars to date, ...homogeneously covering the entire Galactic plane in the range of 40° ≤ ℓ ≤ 340° and −10° ≤ b ≤ +10°. This sample allows us to model the RC star distribution in the Galactic disc to better constrain the properties of the flare and warp of the Galaxy. Our results show that the scale length of the old stellar disc weakly depends on azimuth, with an average value of 1.95 ± 0.26 kpc. On the other hand, a significant disc flaring is detected, where the scale height of the disc increases from 0.38 kpc in the solar neighbourhood to ∼2.2 kpc at R ≈15 kpc. The flare exhibits a slight asymmetry, with ∼1 kpc more scale height below the Galactic plane as compared to the Northern flare. We also confirm the warping of the outer disc, which can be modelled with Zw = (0.0057 ± 0.0050) R − (7358 ± 368)(pc)1.40 ± 0.09sin (ϕ − (− 2${_{.}^{\circ}}$03 ± 0${_{.}^{\circ}}$18)). Our analysis reveals a noticeable north–south asymmetry in the warp, with a greater amplitude observed in the southern direction compared to the northern. Comparing our findings with younger tracers from the literature, we observe an age dependency of both the flare and warp. An increase in flare strength with age suggests the secular evolution of the disc as the preferred mechanism for forming the flare. The increase of the maximum warp amplitude with age indicates that the warp dynamics could be the possible cause of the variation in the warp properties with age.
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