Bibcode
Domínguez-Tenreiro, R.; Obreja, A.; Brook, C. B.; Martínez-Serrano, F. J.; Serna, A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 846, Issue 1, article id. 72, 14 pp. (2017).
Advertised on:
9
2017
Journal
Citations
6
Refereed citations
6
Description
Recent determinations of the radial distributions of mono-metallicity
populations (MMPs, i.e., stars in narrow bins in [Fe/H] within wider
[α/Fe] ranges) by the SDSS-III/APOGEE DR12 survey cast doubts on
the classical thin- and thick-disk dichotomy. The analysis of these
observations led to the non-[α /Fe] enhanced populations splitting
into MMPs with different surface densities according to their [Fe/H]. By
contrast, [α /Fe] enhanced (i.e., old) populations show a
homogeneous behavior. We analyze these results in the wider context of
disk formation within non-isolated halos embedded in the Cosmic Web,
resulting in a two-phase mass assembly. By performing hydrodynamical
simulations in the context of the ΛCDM model, we have found that
the two phases of halo mass assembly (an early fast phase, followed by a
slow phase with low mass-assembly rates) are very relevant to determine
the radial structure of MMP distributions, while radial mixing only
plays a secondary role, depending on the coeval dynamical and/or
destabilizing events. Indeed, while the frequent dynamical violent
events occuring at high redshift remove metallicity gradients and imply
efficient stellar mixing, the relatively quiescent dynamics after the
transition keeps [Fe/H] gaseous gradients and prevents newly formed
stars from suffering strong radial mixing. By linking the two-component
disk concept with the two-phase halo mass-assembly scenario, our results
set halo virialization (the event marking the transition from the fast
to the slow phases) as the separating event that marks periods that are
characterized by different physical conditions under which thick- and
thin-disk stars were born.
Related projects
Numerical Astrophysics: Galaxy Formation and Evolution
How galaxies formed and evolved through cosmic time is one of the key questions of modern astronomy and astrophysics. Cosmological time- and length-scales are so large that the evolution of individual galaxies cannot be directly observed. Only through numerical simulations can one follow the emergence of cosmic structures within the current
Claudio
Dalla Vecchia