Carbon, nitrogen and $α$-element abundances determine the formation sequence of the Galactic thick and thin disks

Abstract

Using the DR12 public release of APOGEE data, we show that thin and thick disk separate very well in the space defined by [$α$/Fe], [Fe/H] and [C/N]. Thick disk giants have both higher [C/N] and higher [$α$/Fe] than do thin disk stars with similar [Fe/H]. We deduce that the thick disk is composed of lower mass stars than the thin disk. Considering the fact that at a given metallicity there is a one-to-one relation between stellar mass and age, we are then able to infer the chronology of disk formation. Both the thick and the thin disks - defined by [$α$/Fe] -- converge in their dependance on [C/N] and [C+N/Fe] at [Fe/H]$\approx$-0.7. We conclude that 1) the majority of thick disk stars formed earlier than did the thin disk stars 2) the formation histories of the thin and thick disks diverged early on, even when the [Fe/H] abundances are similar 3) that the star formation rate in the thin disk has been lower than in the thick disk, at all metallicities. Although these general conclusions remain robust, we also show that current stellar evolution models cannot reproduce the observed C/N ratios for thick disk stars. Unexpectedly, reduced or inhibited canonical extra-mixing is very common in field stars. While subject to abundance calibration zeropoint uncertainties, this implies a strong dependence of non canonical extra-mixing along the red giant branch on the initial composition of the star and in particular on the $α$ elemental abundance.