The age and abundance structure of the stellar populations in the central sub-kpc of the Milky Way

Summary, in English

The four main findings about the age and abundance structure of the Milky Way bulge based on microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars are: (1) a wide metallicity distribution with distinct peaks at [Fe/H] = -1.09, -0.63, -0.20, +0.12, +0.41; (2) a high fraction of intermediate-age to young stars where at [Fe/H] > 0 more than 35 % are younger than 8 Gyr, (3) several episodes of significant star formation in the bulge 3, 6, 8, and 11 Gyr ago; (4) the 'knee' in the α-element abundance trends of the sub-solar metallicity bulge appears to be located at a slightly higher [Fe/H] (about 0.05 to 0.1 dex) than in the local thick disk.

• Author: T. Bensby; S. Feltzing; A. Gould; J. C. Yee; J. A. Johnson; M. Asplund; J. Meléndez; S. Lucatello; L. M. Howes
• Department/s: Lund Observatory - Undergoing reorganization; eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
• Publishing year: 2017
• Language: English
• Pages: 86-89
• Publication/Series: Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
• Volume: 13
• Issue: S334
• Links: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.05960.pdf; http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1743921317007426
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Topic: Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
• Keywords: Galaxy: abundances; Galaxy: disk; Galaxy: evolution; Galaxy: structure
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1743-9213