Local stellar kinematics from RAVE data: IV. Solar neighbourhood age-metallicity relation

TL;DR

This study analyzes the age-metallicity relation of F and G type dwarfs in the solar neighborhood using RAVE data, revealing a steep slope for early F-type stars and significant metallicity scatter at all ages.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed methodology combining isochrone fitting and Bayesian age estimation to study stellar populations in the solar neighborhood.

Findings

Steeper age-metallicity slopes for early F-type dwarfs.

Significant metallicity scatter at all stellar ages.

Old metal-rich dwarfs likely migrated from inner Galaxy regions.

Abstract

We investigated the age-metallicity relation using a sample of 5691 F and G type dwarfs from RAVE DR3 by applying several constraints: i) We selected stars with surface gravities log g < 3.8 and effective temperatures in the 5310<T_{eff}(K)<7300 range and obtained a dwarf sample. ii) We plotted the dwarfs in metallicity sub-samples in the T_{eff}-(J-K_s)_0 plane to compare with the corresponding data of Gonzalez Hernandez & Bonifacio (2009) and identified the ones in agreement. iii) We fitted the reduced dwarf sample obtained from constraints (i) and (ii) to the Padova isochrones and re-identified those which occupy the plane defined by isochrones with ages t < 13 Gyr. iv) Finally, we omitted dwarfs with total velocity errors larger than 10.63 km/s. We estimated the ages using the Bayesian procedure of Jorgensen & Lindegren (2005). The largest age-metallicity slope was found for early F-type dwarfs. We found steeper slopes when we plotted the data as a function of spectral type rather than Galactic population. We noticed a substantial scatter in metallicity distribution at all ages. The metal-rich old dwarfs turned out to be G-type stars which can be interpreted as they migrated from the inner disc or bulge.