Moving Groups in the Solar Neighborhood with Gaia, APOGEE, GALAH, and LAMOST: Dynamical Effects Gather Gas and the Ensuing Star Formation Plays an Important Role in Shaping the Stellar Velocity Distributions

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia, APOGEE, GALAH, and LAMOST data to analyze nine moving groups in the solar neighborhood, revealing their distinct properties and suggesting that gas dynamics and star formation history shape their velocity distributions.

Contribution

It introduces the novel idea that gas dynamics and star formation processes influence the kinematic features of moving groups, linking gas behavior to stellar velocity distributions.

Findings

Each moving group has unique metallicity, alpha abundance, and age distributions.

Moving groups experienced prolonged star formation episodes.

Gas dynamics played a role in shaping the stellar velocity distributions.

Abstract

With Gaia, APOGEE, GALAH, and LAMOST data, we investigate the positional, kinematic, chemical, and age properties of nine moving groups in the solar neighborhood. We find that each moving group has a distinct distribution in the velocity space in terms of its metallicity, $\alpha$ abundance, and age. Comparison of the moving groups with their underlying background stars suggests that they have experienced the enhanced, prolonged star formation. We infer that any dynamical effects that gathered stars as a moving group in the velocity space also worked for gas. We propose for the first time that the ensuing newborn stars from such gas inherited the kinematic feature from the gas, shaping the current stellar velocity distributions of the groups. Our findings improve the understanding of the origins and evolutionary histories of moving groups in the solar neighborhood.