Kenneth Carrell

METALLICITY GRADIENTS OF THICK DISK DWARF STARS

We examine the metallicity distribution of the Galactic thick disk using F, G, and K dwarf stars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Data Release 8. Using the large sample of dwarf stars with proper motions and spectroscopically determined stellar parameters, metallicity gradients in the radial direction for various heights above the Galactic plane and in the vertical direction for various radial distances from the Galaxy center have been found. In particular, we find a vertical metallicity gradient of –0.113 ± 0.010 (–0.125 ± 0.008) dex kpc–1 using an isochrone (photometric) distance determination in the range 1 kpc <|Z| < 3 kpc, which is the vertical height range most consistent with the thick disk of our Galaxy. In the radial direction, we find metallicity gradients between +0.02 and +0.03 dex kpc–1 for bins in the vertical direction between 1 kpc <|Z| < 3 kpc. Both of these results agree with similar values determined from other populations of stars, but this is the first time a radial metallicity gradient for the thick disk has been found at these vertical heights. We are also able to separate thin and thick disk stars based on kinematic and spatial probabilities in the vertical height range where there is significant overlap of these two populations. This should aid further studies of the metallicity gradients of the disk for vertical heights lower than those studied here but above the solar neighborhood. Metallicity gradients in the thin and thick disks are important probes into possible formation scenarios for our Galaxy and a consistent picture is beginning to emerge from results using large spectroscopic surveys, such as the ones presented here.

The Metallicity Gradient of the Thick Disk Based on Red Horizontal-branch Stars from SDSS DR8

Based on SDSS DR8, we have selected a sample of 1728 red horizontal-branch (RHB) stars with |Z| < 3 kpc by using a color-metallicity relation and stellar parameters. The sample stars clearly trace a typical thick disk population with peaks at |Z| = 1.26 kpc and [Fe/H] = –0.54. The vertical metallicity gradient of the thick disk is estimated in two ways. One is a fit to the Gaussian peaks of the metallicity histograms of the thick disk by subtracting minor contributions from the thin disk and the inner halo based on the Besancon Galaxy Model. The resulting gradient is –0.12 ± 0.01 dex kpc–1 for 0.5 < |Z| < 3 kpc. The other method is to linearly fit the data based on stars with 1 < |Z| < 3 kpc being the main component of the thick disk. Five subgroups are then selected in different directions in the X-|Z| plane to investigate the difference in the vertical metallicity gradient between the Galactocenter and anti-Galactocenter directions. We found that a vertical gradient of –0.22 ± 0.07 dex kpc–1 is detected for five directions except for one involving the pollution of stars from the bulge. The results indicate that the vertical gradient is dominant, but a radial gradient has a minor contribution for the thick disk population represented by RHB stars with 1 < |Z| < 3 kpc. The present work strongly suggests the existence of a metallicity gradient in the thick disk, which is thought to be negligible in most previous works in the literature.

A RESONANT FEATURE NEAR THE PERSEUS ARM REVEALED BY RED CLUMP STARS

We investigate the extinction, together with the radial velocity (RV) dispersion and distribution of red clump stars in the anticenter direction using spectra obtained with Hectospec on the MMT. We find that extinction peaks at Galactocentric radii of about 9.5 and 12.5 kpc, right in front of the locations of the Perseus and Outer arms and in line with the relative position of dust and stars in external spiral galaxies. The RV dispersion peaks around 10 kpc, which coincides with the location of the Perseus arm, yields an estimated arm-interarm density contrast of 1.3-1.5, and is in agreement with previous studies. Finally, we discover that the RV distribution bifurcates around 10-11 kpc into two peaks at +27 km s(-1) and -4 km s(-1). This seems to be naturally explained by the presence of the outer Lindblad resonance of the Galactic bar, but further observations will be needed to understand if the corotation resonance of the spirals arms also plays a role.

THE KINEMATICS AND CHEMISTRY OF RED HORIZONTAL BRANCH STARS IN THE SAGITTARIUS STREAMS

We have selected 556 red horizontal branch stars along the streams of the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy from Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 spectroscopic data using a theoretical model. The metallicity and ?-element distributions are investigated for stars in the Sgr streams and for Galactic stars at the same locations. We find that the Sgr stars have two peaks in the metallicity distribution while the Galactic stars have a more prominent metal-poor peak. Meanwhile, [?/Fe] ratios of the Sgr stars are lower than those of the Galactic stars. Among the Sgr stars, we find a difference in the metallicity distribution between the leading and trailing arms of the Sgr tidal tails. The metallicity and [?/Fe] distribution of the leading arm is similar to that of the Galaxy. The trailing arm is composed mainly of a metal-rich component and [?/Fe] is obviously lower than that of the Galactic stars. The metallicity gradient is ?(1.8 ? 0.3)? 10?3?dex?deg?1 in the first wrap of the trailing arm and ?(1.5 ? 0.4)? 10?3?dex?deg?1 in the first wrap of the leading arm. No significant gradient exists along the second wraps of the leading or trailing arms. It seems that the Sgr dwarf galaxy initially lost the metal-poor component in the second wrap (older) arms due to the tidal force of our Galaxy and then the metal-rich component is disrupted in the first wrap (younger) arms. Finally, we found that the velocity dispersion of the trailing arm from 88? < ?? < 112? is ? = 9.808 ? 1.0?km?s?1, which is consistent with previous work in the literature.

Numerical simulation of a possible origin of the positive radial metallicity gradient of the thick disk

We analyze the radial and vertical metallicity and [α/Fe] gradients of the disk stars of a disk galaxy simulated in a fully cosmological setting with the chemo-dynamical galaxy evolution code GCD+. We study how the radial abundance gradients vary as a function of height above the plane and find that the metallicity ([α/Fe]) gradient becomes more positive (negative) with increasing height, changing sign around 1.5 kpc above the plane. At the largest vertical height (2 2 kpc at the outer region, because of the lower gravitational restoring force of the disk, i.e. flaring. As a result, the fraction of younger stars with higher metallicity due to the age-metallicity relation becomes higher at the outer radii, which makes the median metallicity higher at the outer radii. Combining this result with the recently observed age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relation for the Milky Way thick disk stars suggested by Haywood et al., we argue that the observed (small) positive radial metallicity gradient at large heights of the Milky Way disk stars can be explained by flaring of the younger thick and/or thin disk stars.

DA WHITE DWARFS OBSERVED IN THE LAMOST PILOT SURVEY

A total of ~640, 000 objects from the LAMOST pilot survey have been publicly released. In this work, we present a catalog of DA white dwarfs (DAWDs) from the entire pilot survey. We outline a new algorithm for the selection of white dwarfs (WDs) by fitting Sersic profiles to the Balmer Hβ, Hγ, and Hδ lines of the spectra, and calculating the equivalent width of the Ca II K line. Two thousand nine hundred sixty-four candidates are selected by constraining the fitting parameters and the equivalent width of the Ca II K line. All the spectra of candidates are visually inspected. We identify 230 DAWDs (59 of which are already included in the Villanova and SDSS WD catalogs), 20 of which are DAWDs with non-degenerate companions. In addition, 128 candidates are classified as DAWDs/subdwarfs, which means the classifications are ambiguous. The result is consistent with the expected DAWD number estimated based on the LEGUE target selection algorithm.

RED GIANT STARS FROM THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY. II. DISTANCES

We present distance determinations for a large and clean sample of red giant branch stars selected from the ninth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The distances are calculated based on both observational cluster fiducials and theoretical isochrones. Distributions of distances from the two methods are very similar with peaks at about 10 kpc and tails extending to more than 70 kpc. We find that distances from the two methods agree well for the majority of the sample stars; though, on average, distances based on isochrones are 10% higher than those based on fiducials. We test the accuracy of our distance determinations using 332 stars from 10 Galactic globular and open clusters. The average relative deviation from the literature cluster distances is 4% for the fiducial-based distances and 8% for the isochrone-based distances, both of which are within the uncertainties. We find that the effective temperature and surface gravity derived from low-resolution spectra are not accurate enough to essentially improve the performance of distance determinations. However, for stars with significant extinction, effective temperature may help to better constrain their distances to some extent. We make our sample stars and their distances available from an online catalog. The catalog comprises 17,941 stars with reasonable distance estimations reaching to more than 70 kpc, which is suitable for the investigation of the formation and evolution of the Galaxy, especially the Galactic halo.

Hydrogen lines in LAMOST low-resolution spectra of RR Lyrae stars

Abstract The LAMOST pilot survey has produced a data release containing over 600,000 stellar spectra. By cross-checking with a large time series photometric database of RR Lyrae stars in high Galactic latitude regions, we found a total number of 157 RR Lyrae stars that have been observed with LAMOST. In this sample, we successfully captured three RR Lyrae stars in the fast expansion phase, all of them showing hypersonic shock wave features in the Balmer line region. We fit the shape of H α line region and determine that the emission feature seen within the broadened H α absorption line suggests hypersonic relative motion in the atmospheres of these three objects. With a further LAMOST survey of millions of stars, we plan to capture a large sample of RR Lyrae stars in their hypersonic expansion phase, and therefore provide a large database for the study of the internal structure and the pulsation mechanism of RR Lyrae stars.

The CH(G) Index as a New Criterion for Selecting Red Giant Stars

We have measured the CH G band (CH(G)) index for evolved stars in the globular cluster M3 based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic survey. It is found that there is a useful way to select red giant branch (RGB) stars from the contamination of other evolved stars such as asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and red horizontal branch (RHB) stars by using the CH(G) index versus (g – r)0 diagram if the metallicity is known from the spectra. When this diagram is applied to field giant stars with similar metallicity, we establish a calibration of CH(G) = 1.625(g – r)0 – 1.174(g – r)2 0 – 0.934. This method is confirmed by stars with [Fe/H] ~ –2.3 where spectra of member stars in globular clusters M15 and M92 are available in the SDSS database. We thus extend this kind of calibration to every individual metallicity bin ranging from [Fe/H] ~ –3.0 to [Fe/H] ~ 0.0 by using field red giant stars with 0.4 ≤ (g – r)0 ≤ 1.0. The metallicity-dependent calibrations give CH(G) = 1.625(g – r)0 – 1.174(g – r)2 0 + 0.060[Fe/H] – 0.830 for –3.0 < [Fe/H] ≤ –1.2 and CH(G) = 0.953(g – r)0 – 0.655(g – r)2 0 + 0.060[Fe/H] – 0.650 for –1.2 < [Fe/H] < 0.0. The calibrations are valid for the SDSS spectroscopic data set, and they cannot be applied blindly to other data sets. With the two calibrations, a significant number of the contaminating stars (AGB and RHB stars) were excluded and thus a clear sample of red giant stars is obtained by selecting stars within ±0.05 mag of the calibration. The sample is published online and it is expected that this large and clean sample of RGB stars will provide new information on the formation and evolution of the Galaxy.

The Galactic rotation curve from red clump stars

We use line-of-sight velocities of more than 4000 red clump stars observed from MMT/Hectospec to derive the Galactic rotation curve between 8 and 13 kpc in Galactocentric radius to better than 10 km s−1 . A three-component (bulge+disk+halo) with an additional massive ring of 1.66×10 M at about 11.6 kpc provides an excellent fit with the observation.