Nils Ryde
Professor
DETAILED ABUNDANCE ANALYSIS of A METAL-POOR GIANT in the GALACTIC CENTER
Author
Summary, in English
We report the first results from our program to examine the metallicity distribution of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster connected to Sgr A∗, with the goal of inferring the star formation and enrichment history of this system, as well as its connection and relationship with the central 100 pc of the bulge/bar system. We present the first high-resolution (R ∼ 24,000), detailed abundance analysis of a K = 10.2 metal-poor, alpha-enhanced red giant projected at 1.5 pc from the Galactic center, using NIRSPEC on Keck II. A careful analysis of the dynamics and color of the star locates it at about pc line-of-sight distance in front of the nuclear cluster. It probably belongs to one of the nuclear components (cluster or disk), not to the bar/bulge or classical disk. A detailed spectroscopic synthesis, using a new line list in the K band, finds [Fe/H] ∼ -1.0 and [α/Fe] ∼ 0.4, consistent with stars of similar metallicity in the bulge. As known giants with comparable [Fe/H] and alpha enhancement are old, we conclude that this star is most likely to be a representative of the ∼10 Gyr old population. This is also the most metal-poor-confirmed red giant yet discovered in the vicinity of the nuclear cluster of the Galactic center. We consider recent reports in the literature of a surprisingly large number of metal-poor giants in the Galactic center, but the reported gravity of for these stars calls into question their reported metallicities.
Department/s
- Lund Observatory - Undergoing reorganization
Publishing year
2016-11-01
Language
English
Publication/Series
Astrophysical Journal
Volume
831
Issue
1
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
American Astronomical Society
Topic
- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Keywords
- Galaxy: center
- stars: abundances
- stars: late-type
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0004-637X