Bibcode
Hayden, M. R.; Bovy, Jo; Holtzman, Jon A.; Nidever, David L.; Bird, Jonathan C.; Weinberg, David H.; Andrews, Brett H.; Majewski, Steven R.; Allende Prieto, C.; Anders, Friedrich; Beers, Timothy C.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Chiappini, Cristina; Cunha, Katia; Frinchaboy, Peter; García-Herńandez, D. A.; García Pérez, A. E.; Girardi, Léo; Harding, Paul; Hearty, Fred R.; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Mészáros, Szabolcs; Minchev, Ivan; O’Connell, Robert; Pan, Kaike; Robin, Annie C.; Schiavon, Ricardo P.; Schneider, Donald P.; Schultheis, Mathias; Shetrone, Matthew; Skrutskie, Michael; Steinmetz, Matthias; Smith, Verne; Wilson, John C.; Zamora, O.; Zasowski, Gail
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 808, Issue 2, article id. 132, 18 pp. (2015).
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2015
Journal
Citations
535
Refereed citations
471
Description
Using a sample of 69,919 red giants from the SDSS-III/APOGEE Data
Release 12, we measure the distribution of stars in the [α/Fe]
versus [Fe/H] plane and the metallicity distribution functions (MDFs)
across an unprecedented volume of the Milky Way disk, with radius 3 <
R < 15 kpc and height | z| \lt 2 kpc. Stars in the inner disk (R <
5 kpc) lie along a single track in [α/Fe] versus [Fe/H], starting
with α-enhanced, metal-poor stars and ending at [α/Fe] ∼
0 and [Fe/H] ∼ +0.4. At larger radii we find two distinct sequences
in [α/Fe] versus [Fe/H] space, with a roughly solar-α
sequence that spans a decade in metallicity and a high-α sequence
that merges with the low-α sequence at super-solar [Fe/H]. The
location of the high-α sequence is nearly constant across the disk
however, there are very few high-α stars at R > 11 kpc. The
peak of the midplane MDF shifts to lower metallicity at larger R,
reflecting the Galactic metallicity gradient. Most strikingly, the shape
of the midplane MDF changes systematically with radius, from a
negatively skewed distribution at 3 < R < 7 kpc, to a roughly
Gaussian distribution at the solar annulus, to a positively skewed shape
in the outer Galaxy. For stars with | z| \gt 1 kpc or [α/Fe] >
0.18, the MDF shows little dependence on R. The positive skewness of the
outer-disk MDF may be a signature of radial migration; we show that
blurring of stellar populations by orbital eccentricities is not enough
to explain the reversal of MDF shape, but a simple model of radial
migration can do so.
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