The Star Formation History of the Milky Way's Nuclear Star Cluster
Zhuo Chen (1), Tuan Do (1), Andrea M. Ghez (1), Matthew Hosek Jr. (1),, Anja Feldmeier-Krause (2), Devin Chu (1), Rory Bentley (1), Jessica R. Lu, (3), Mark R. Morris (1) ((1) Department of Physics, Astronomy, University, of California, Los Angeles, USA

TL;DR
This study reconstructs the star formation history of the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster using metallicity data, revealing a younger, metal-rich dominant population and implications for black hole and neutron star populations.
Contribution
It introduces a Bayesian modeling approach incorporating metallicity measurements, revealing a younger, metal-rich dominant population and refining stellar remnant predictions.
Findings
Dominant population is metal-rich (~0.45) and ~3 Gyr younger than previous estimates.
Minor population is low metallicity (~-1.1) with uncertain age.
Predicted neutron star and black hole populations are 2-4 times lower than earlier models.
Abstract
We report the first star formation history study of the Milky Way's nuclear star cluster (NSC) that includes observational constraints from a large sample of stellar metallicity measurements. These metallicity measurements were obtained from recent surveys from Gemini and VLT of 770 late-type stars within the central 1.5 pc. These metallicity measurements, along with photometry and spectroscopically derived temperatures, are forward modeled with a Bayesian inference approach. Including metallicity measurements improves the overall fit quality, as the low-temperature red giants that were previously difficult to constrain are now accounted for, and the best fit favors a two-component model. The dominant component contains 93%3% of the mass, is metal-rich (0.45), and has an age of 5 Gyr, which is 3 Gyr younger than earlier studies with fixed…
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Taxonomy
TopicsPulsars and Gravitational Waves Research · Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies · Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
