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Thomas Bensby. Profile photo.

Thomas Bensby

Senior lecturer

Thomas Bensby. Profile photo.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: a quiescent Milky Way with no significant dark/stellar accreted disc

Author

  • Gregory Ruchti
  • J. I. Read
  • Sofia Feltzing
  • A. M. Serenelli
  • Paul McMillan
  • K. Lind
  • Thomas Bensby
  • M. Bergemann
  • M. Asplund
  • A. Vallenari
  • E. Flaccomio
  • E. Pancino
  • A. J. Korn
  • A. Recio-Blanco
  • A. Bayo
  • G. Carraro
  • M. T. Costado
  • F. Damiani
  • U. Heiter
  • A. Hourihane
  • P. Jofre
  • G. Kordopatis
  • C. Lardo
  • P. de Laverny
  • L. Monaco
  • L. Morbidelli
  • L. Sbordone
  • C. C. Worley
  • S. Zaggia

Summary, in English

According to our current cosmological model, galaxies like the Milky Way are expected to experience many mergers over their lifetimes. The most massive of the merging galaxies will be dragged towards the disc plane, depositing stars and dark matter into an accreted disc structure. In this work, we utilize the chemodynamical template developed in Ruchti et al. to hunt for accreted stars. We apply the template to a sample of 4675 stars in the third internal data release from the Gaia-ESO Spectroscopic Survey. We find a significant component of accreted halo stars, but find no evidence of an accreted disc component. This suggests that the Milky Way has had a rather quiescent merger history since its disc formed some 8-10 billion years ago and therefore possesses no significant dark matter disc.

Department/s

  • Lund Observatory - Has been reorganised

Publishing year

2015

Language

English

Pages

2874-2887

Publication/Series

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume

450

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Keywords

  • surveys
  • stars: abundances
  • stars: kinematics and dynamics
  • Galaxy:
  • disc
  • Galaxy: evolution
  • Galaxy: formation

Status

Published

Project

  • Gaia-ESO Survey

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1365-2966