Phase-space Properties and Chemistry of the Sagittarius Stellar Stream Down to the Extremely Metal-poor ($\rm[Fe/H] \lesssim -3$) Regime

TL;DR

This study investigates the phase-space and chemical properties of the Sagittarius stream, especially its very metal-poor stars, revealing a correlation between metallicity, age, and stripping time, and discovering carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the metallicity distribution, age, and chemical composition of the Sagittarius stream, especially in the extremely metal-poor regime, using combined spectroscopic, astrometric, and modeling data.

Findings

Leading arm is more metal-poor than trailing arm by ~0.2 dex.

Stream's metal-poor stars are ~1 Gyr older than the thick disk.

Discovery of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars in the stream.

Abstract

In this work, we study the phase-space and chemical properties of Sagittarius (Sgr) stream, the tidal tails produced by the ongoing destruction of Sgr dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy, focusing on its very metal-poor (VMP; $\rm[Fe/H] < -2$) content. We combine spectroscopic and astrometric information from SEGUE and $Gaia$ EDR3, respectively, with data products from a new large-scale run of $\texttt{StarHorse}$ spectro-photometric code. Our selection criteria yields ${\sim}1600$ stream members, including ${>}200$ VMP stars. We find the leading arm ($b>0^\circ$) of Sgr stream to be more metal-poor, by ${\sim}0.2$ dex, than the trailing one ($b<0^\circ$). With a subsample of turnoff and subgiant stars, we estimate this substructure's stellar population to be ${\sim}1$ Gyr older than the thick disk's. With the aid of an $N$-body model of the Sgr system, we verify that simulated particles stripped earlier (${>}2$ Gyr ago) have present-day phase-space properties similar to lower-metallicity stream stars. Conversely, those stripped more recently (${<}2$ Gyr) are preferentially more akin to metal-rich ($\rm[Fe/H] > -1$) members of the stream. Such correlation between kinematics and chemistry can be explained by the existence of a dynamically hotter, less centrally-concentrated, and more metal-poor population in Sgr dSph prior to its disruption, implying that this galaxy was able to develop a metallicity gradient before its accretion. Finally, we discovered several carbon-enhanced metal-poor ($\rm[C/Fe] > +0.7$ and $\rm[Fe/H] \leq -1.5$) stars in Sgr stream, which is in tension with current observations of its remaining core where such objects are not found.