A Disk Origin for the Monoceros Ring and A13 Stellar Overdensities

TL;DR

This study investigates the origins of the Monoceros Ring and A13 stellar overdensities, providing evidence that they likely originated from the Milky Way disk rather than being remnants of a disrupted satellite galaxy.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed spectroscopic analysis comparing RR Lyrae and M giant stars in these structures, supporting a disk origin scenario.

Findings

Both structures have very low RR Lyrae to M giant star ratios.

Velocity measurements suggest these overdensities formed from the Milky Way disk.

Possible association with the Triangulum-Andromeda overdensity based on velocity and stellar composition.

Abstract

The Monoceros Ring (also known as the Galactic Anticenter Stellar Structure) and A13 are stellar overdensities at estimated heliocentric distances of $d \sim 11$ kpc and 15 kpc observed at low Galactic latitudes towards the anticenter of our Galaxy. While these overdensities were initially thought to be remnants of a tidally-disrupted satellite galaxy, an alternate scenario is that they are composed of stars from the Milky Way (MW) disk kicked out to their current location due to interactions between a satellite galaxy and the disk. To test this scenario, we study the stellar populations of the Monoceros Ring and A13 by measuring the number of RR Lyrae and M giant stars associated with these overdensities. We obtain low-resolution spectroscopy for RR Lyrae stars in the two structures and measure radial velocities to compare with previously measured velocities for M giant stars in the regions of the Monoceros Ring and A13, to assess the fraction of RR Lyrae to M giant stars ($f_{RR:MG}$) in A13 and Mon/GASS. We perform velocity modeling on 153 RR Lyrae stars (116 in the Monoceros Ring and 37 in A13) and find that both structures have very low $f_{RR:MG}$. The results support a scenario in which stars in A13 and Mon/GASS formed in the MW disk. We discuss a possible association between Mon/GASS, A13, and the Triangulum-Andromeda overdensity based on their similar velocity distributions and $f_{RR:MG}$.