The Galactic Stellar Disc

TL;DR

This study analyzes the Milky Way's stellar disc using high-resolution spectroscopy of 550 dwarf stars, revealing distinct abundance patterns, orbital characteristics, and insights into the disc's formation and evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a new, extensive dataset of stellar abundances and kinematics, providing novel insights into the formation history and dynamical processes of the Milky Way disc.

Findings

Stars with high above-plane and eccentric orbits show tight abundance trends.

Evidence suggests a heating event occurred a few billion years ago.

Many stellar streams and groups are likely due to internal disc evolution, not external accretion.

Abstract

The study of the Milky Way stellar discs in the context of galaxy formation is discussed. In particular we explore the properties of the Milky Way disc using a new sample of about 550 dwarf stars for which we have recently obtained elemental abundances and ages based on high resolution spectroscopy. For all the stars we also have full kinematic information as well as information about their stellar orbits. We confirm results from previous studies that the thin and the thick disc have distinct abundance patterns. But we also explore a larger range of orbital parameters than what has been possible in our previous studies. Several new results are presented. We find that stars that reaches high above the galactic plane and have eccentric orbits show remarkably tight abundance trends. This implies that these stars formed out of well mixed gas that had been homogenized over large volumes. We find some evidence that point to that the event that most likely caused the heating of this stellar population happened a few billion years ago. Through a simple, kinematic exploration of stars with super-solar [Fe/H] we show that the solar neighbourhood contains metal-rich, high velocity stars that very likely are associated with the thick disc. Additionally, the HR1614 moving group and the Hercules and Arcturus stellar streams are discussed and it is concluded that, probably, a large fraction of the so far identified groups and streams in the disc are the result of evolution and interactions within the stellar disc rather than being dissolved stellar clusters or engulfed dwarf galaxies.