Constraints on the Galactic Inner Halo Assembly History from the Age Gradient of Blue Horizontal-branch Stars

TL;DR

This study maps the age distribution of Milky Way halo stars, revealing an inner region with a steep age gradient and a break at 14 kpc, supporting a dissipational formation scenario involving massive progenitors.

Contribution

It introduces a machine-learning method to select blue horizontal-branch stars and maps their relative ages, identifying a significant break and gradient in the Galactic halo's age profile.

Findings

Inner halo shows a steep age gradient of -63.4 Myr/kpc.

A clear break in age profile at approximately 14 kpc from the Galactic center.

Results support a dissipational formation involving massive progenitors.

Abstract

We present an analysis of the relative age distribution of the Milky Way halo, based on samples of blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars obtained from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System and \textit{Galaxy Evolution Explorer} photometry, as well a Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic sample. A machine-learning approach to the selection of BHB stars is developed, using support vector classification, with which we produce chronographic age maps of the Milky Way halo out to 40\,kpc from the Galactic center. We identify a characteristic break in the relative age profiles of our BHB samples, corresponding to a Galactocentric radius of $R_{\rm{GC}} \sim 14$\,kpc. Within the break radius, we find an age gradient of $-63.4 \pm 8.2$ Myr kpc$^{-1}$, which is significantly steeper than obtained by previous studies that did not discern between the inner- and outer-halo regions. The gradient in the relative age profile and the break radius signatures persist after correcting for the influence of metallicity on our spectroscopic calibration sample. We conclude that neither are due to the previously recognized metallicity gradient in the halo, as one passes from the inner-halo to the outer-halo region. Our results are consistent with a dissipational formation of the inner-halo population, involving a few relatively massive progenitor satellites, such as those proposed to account for the assembly of \textit{Gaia}-Enceladus, which then merged with the inner halo of the Milky Way.