On the Chemical and Structural Evolution of the Galactic Disk

TL;DR

This study investigates the evolution of the Galactic disk's metallicity gradient using large stellar datasets, revealing differences between thick and thin disk stars and implications for galaxy formation and chemical evolution.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the chemical and structural evolution of the Galactic disk by analyzing metallicity gradients across different stellar populations and their alpha-element ratios.

Findings

Thick-disk stars show positive metallicity gradients.

Thin-disk stars exhibit negative and flattening gradients.

Results suggest early gas infall and chemical evolution shaped the disk.

Abstract

We study the detailed properties of the radial metallicity gradient in the stellar disk of our Galaxy to constrain its chemical and structural evolution. For this purpose we select and analyze $\sim$ 18,500 disk stars taken from two datasets, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the High-Accuracy Radial velocity Planetary Searcher (HARPS). On these surveys we examine the metallicity gradient, $\Delta$[Fe/H]/$\Delta R_{\rm g}$, along the guiding-center radii, $R_{\rm g}$, of stars and its dependence on the [$\alpha$/Fe] ratios, to infer the original metallicity distribution of the gas disk from which those stars formed and its time evolution. In both sample sources, the thick-disk candidate stars characterized by high [$\alpha$/Fe] ratios ([$\alpha$/Fe] $>$ 0.3 in SDSS, [$\alpha$/Fe] $>$ 0.2 in HARPS) are found to show a positive $\Delta$[Fe/H]/$\Delta R_{\rm g}$, whereas the thin-disk candidate stars characterized by lower [$\alpha$/Fe] ratios show a negative one. Furthermore, we find that the relatively young thin-disk population characterized by much lower [$\alpha$/Fe] ratios ([$\alpha$/Fe] $<$ 0.2 in SDSS, [$\alpha$/Fe] $<$ 0.1 in HARPS) shows notably a flattening $\Delta$[Fe/H]/$\Delta R_{\rm g}$ with decreasing [$\alpha$/Fe], in contrast to the old one with higher [$\alpha$/Fe] ratios ([$\alpha$/Fe] $\sim$ 0.2 in SDSS, [$\alpha$/Fe] $\sim$ 0.1 in HARPS). The possible implication for early disk evolution is discussed, in the context of galaxy formation accompanying the rapid infall of primordial gas on the inner disk region, which can generate a positive metallicity gradient, and the subsequent chemical evolution of the disk, which results in a flattening effect of a metallicity gradient at later epochs.