Bibcode
Battaglia, G.; North, P.; Jablonka, P.; Shetrone, M.; Minniti, D.; Díaz, M.; Starkenburg, E.; Savoy, M.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 608, id.A145, 30 pp.
Advertised on:
12
2017
Journal
Citations
16
Refereed citations
14
Description
In a framework where galaxies form hierarchically, extended stellar
haloes are predicted to be an ubiquitous feature around Milky Way-like
galaxies and to consist mainly of the shredded stellar component of
smaller galactic systems. The type of accreted stellar systems are
expected to vary according to the specific accretion and merging history
of a given galaxy, and so is the fraction of stars formed in situ versus
accreted. Analysis of the chemical properties of Milky Way halo stars
out to large Galactocentric radii can provide important insights into
the properties of the environment in which the stars that contributed to
the build-up of different regions of the Milky Way stellar halo formed.
In this work we focus on the outer regions of the Milky Way stellar
halo, by determining chemical abundances of halo stars with large
present-day Galactocentric distances, >15 kpc. The data-set we
acquired consists of high resolution HET/HRS, Magellan/MIKE and VLT/UVES
spectra for 28 red giant branch stars covering a wide metallicity range,
-3.1 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲-0.6. We show that the ratio of
α-elements over Fe as a function of [Fe/H] for our sample of outer
halo stars is not dissimilar from the pattern shown by MW halo stars
from solar neighborhood samples. On the other hand, significant
differences appear at [Fe/H] ≳-1.5 when considering chemical
abundance ratios such as [Ba/Fe], [Na/Fe], [Ni/Fe], [Eu/Fe], [Ba/Y].
Qualitatively, this type of chemical abundance trends are observed in
massive dwarf galaxies, such as Sagittarius and the Large Magellanic
Cloud. This appears to suggest a larger contribution in the outer halo
of stars formed in an environment with high initial star formation rate
and already polluted by asymptotic giant branch stars with respect to
inner halo samples.
Based on ESO program 093.B-0615(A).Based on observations obtained with
the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is a joint project of the University
of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Stanford
University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.This paper presents data
gathered with the Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory,
Chile.Tables A.5-A.11 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to
http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/608/A145
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