[X/Fe] Marks the Spot: Mapping Chemical Azimuthal Variations in the Galactic Disk with APOGEE

TL;DR

This study maps chemical variations across the Milky Way disk using APOGEE data, revealing azimuthal metallicity fluctuations linked to stellar age and other elements, indicating complex Galactic processes beyond spiral arm influence.

Contribution

It provides detailed chemical cartography of the Galactic disk, highlighting azimuthal variations and their correlation with stellar age and other elements, advancing understanding of Galactic structure.

Findings

Confirmed radial and vertical metallicity gradients.

Detected azimuthal metallicity variations of up to ±0.1 dex.

Found correlations between stellar age and metallicity deviations.

Abstract

Chemical cartography of the Galactic disk provides insights to its structure and assembly history over cosmic time. In this work, we use chemical cartography to explore chemical gradients and azimuthal substructure in the Milky Way disk with giant stars from APOGEE DR17. We confirm the existence of a radial metallicity gradient in the disk of $\Delta$[Fe/H]/$\Delta$R $\sim -0.066 \pm 0.0004$ dex/kpc and a vertical metallicity gradient of $\Delta$[Fe/H]/$\Delta$Z $\sim -0.164 \pm 0.001$ dex/kpc. We find azimuthal variations ($\pm0.1$ dex) on top of the radial metallicity gradient that have been previously established with other surveys. The APOGEE giants show strong correlations with stellar age and the intensity of azimuthal variations in iron; older stellar populations show the largest deviations from the radial metallicity gradient. Beyond iron, we show that other elements (e.g., Mg, O) display azimuthal variations at the $\pm0.05$ dex-level across the Galactic disk. We illustrate that moving into the orbit-space could help constrain the mechanisms producing these azimuthal metallicity variations. These results suggest that the spiral arms of the Galaxy are not solely responsible for azimuthal metallicity variations and other Galactic processes are at play.