Metallicities of old open clusters: A new Galactic map

TL;DR

This study provides a detailed, homogeneous analysis of metallicities for approximately 600 old open clusters across the Milky Way, revealing a smooth metallicity gradient and insights into Galactic chemical evolution.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive, high-precision metallicity map of old open clusters using Gaia data, improving understanding of Galactic metallicity distribution and evolution.

Findings

Metallicity decreases smoothly from the Galactic center outward.

Inner gradient flattens with age, indicating chemical evolution over time.

Low dispersion suggests weak radial mixing in the Galactic disc.

Abstract

Old open clusters (OCs) can constrain the chemical evolution of the Galactic disc through their metallicity gradients and age-metallicity relation but they are affected by low statistics. This work aims to determine precise and homogeneous metallicities for a number of old clusters ($\geq$ 500 Myr) from all-sky catalogues of stellar parameters leveraging Gaia spectrophotometry. Our purpose was to revisit the metallicity distribution of the oldest OCs as a function of their Galactic position and age with improved statistics. Our sample includes ~600 old OCs with a typical precision of 0.05 dex in metallicity. We identified metal-poor or metal-rich clusters never studied before, as well as moving groups as the remnants of dissolving clusters. Galactic maps show a smooth decrease in metallicity from inside to outside the disc. Metal-rich and metal-poor clusters exist at all ages but dominate respectively in the inner and the outer disc, with different scale heights.The radial metallicity gradient was found to have a knee shape with a steep value of -0.084$\pm$0.004 dex/kpc in the inner side and -0.018$\pm$0.056 dex/kpc outside the knee. The inner radial gradient flattens with age. Vertically, the metallicity gradient is -0.415$\pm$0.030 dex/kpc. The large scatter in the distribution of metallicity versus age is nicely explained by the superposition of OC populations standing at different galactocentric distances, each with its own mean metallicity and small dispersion, less than 0.08 dex in radius bins of 1 kpc.Our results are consistent with a negative radial metallicity gradient of interstellar matter that was present in the disc when the clusters formed. The low metallicity dispersion in each radius bin reflects weak radial mixing.