Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 1511.06369

Imprints of radial migration on the Milky Way's metallicity distribution functions

Sarah R. Loebman·Victor P. Debattista·David L. Nidever·Michael R. Hayden·Jon A. Holtzman·Adam J. Clarke·Rok Roskar·Monica Valluri
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Recent analysis of the SDSS-III/APOGEE Data Release 12 stellar catalogue has revealed that the Milky Way's metallicity distribution function (MDF) changes shape as a function of radius, transitioning from being negatively skewed at small Galactocentric radii to positively skewed at large Galactocentric radii. Using a high resolution, N-body+SPH simulation, we show that the changing skewness arises from radial migration - metal-rich stars form in the inner disk and subsequently migrate to the metal-poorer outer disk. These migrated stars represent a large fraction (> 50%) of the stars in the outer disk; they populate the high metallicity tail of the MDFs and are, in general, more metal-rich than the surrounding outer disk gas. The simulation also reproduces another surprising APOGEE result: the spatially invariant high-[alpha/Fe] MDFs. This arises in the simulation from the migration of a population formed within a narrow range of radii (3.2+/-1.2 kpc) and time (8.8+/-0.6 Gyr ago), rather than from spatially extended star formation in a homogeneous medium at early times. These results point toward the crucial role radial migration has played in shaping our Milky Way.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.GA

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Sarah R. Loebman, Victor P. Debattista, David L. Nidever, Michael R. Hayden, Jon A. Holtzman, Adam J. Clarke, Rok Roskar, Monica Valluri. 2016-02-08. Imprints of radial migration on the Milky Way's metallicity distribution functions. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205%2F818%2F1%2Fl6

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Small hosts, big appetites: unveiling rapid and early low-mass black hole growth in cosmological zoom-in simulations of dwarf galaxies

Dwarf galaxies are ideal laboratories to probe the interplay between galaxy formation and the growth of black holes (BHs) in the early Universe. Mounting observational evidence reveals the presence of BHs in low-mass galaxies across cosmic time, with $\textit{JWST}$ uncovering a likely population of $\textit{overmassive}$ BHs at $2 \lesssim z \lesssim 11$. Simulations struggle to reproduce this high-redshift regime, motivating revisions to models of BH accretion and feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). To address this, we present high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of a dwarf galaxy based on FABLE physics, introducing novel sink-based BH accretion models and relaxing the fiducial assumption of strong supernova feedback. BHs accrete more efficiently in the sink-based runs compared to the `traditional' Bondi-based counterparts, with AGN feedback leading to early, rapid quenching maintained by fast, hot and metal-enriched outflows. These outflows pollute the outer circumgalactic medium, yielding flat metallicity gradients down to $z=0$. We further assess the performance of two widely used virial estimators and find significant departures from the true dynamical mass, especially during the high-redshift dwarf assembly. Since our galaxy is dark-matter-dominated at all times and radii, BH growth, tied to the baryon cycle, shows no clear correlation with global dynamical properties. Efficient AGN feedback is produced by overmassive BHs relative to extrapolated local $M_\bullet - M_\star$ relations, raising the possibility that dormant, overmassive BHs in local quenched dwarfs and those probed by $\textit{JWST}$ may reflect a common mode of early and rapid BH growth in low-mass galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

RUBIES: The Evolution of the Ionization Parameter from 0 < z < 9

The dimensionless ionization parameter, U=q/c, where q is the ratio of the local ionizing photon flux to the local hydrogen density, is a key metric to parameterize nebular conditions. Prior to JWST, the rest-frame optical emission lines and their ratios which trace the ionization parameter (e.g., O32=[OIII]/[OII]) were inaccessible at high redshifts. Here we quantify, for the first time, the evolution of the ionization parameter in galaxies across the last 13 billion years of cosmic time by comparing JWST/NIRSpec PRISM and G395M spectroscopy of 434 galaxies at 3<z<9 from the RUBIES survey with z<3 samples from SDSS, LEGA-C, and KBSS. We leverage a large suite of photoionization models to infer U from [OIII] and [OII]. We find that U increases with redshift and specific star formation rate (sSFR), and decreases with stellar mass. Crucially, and in contrast to previous linear best-fit calibrations, our inference results in a systematic uncertainty in logU of ~0.3 dex at zero measurement uncertainty due to the wide range of models that predict the same O32 ratio without informative priors. We compare to SPHINX20 and LUMEN simulations and find that the simulated galaxies exhibit higher O32 ratios at fixed redshift and stellar mass compared to RUBIES observations. Finally, we combine the predictive power of observed and inferred quantities with multivariate relations to estimate U from redshift, stellar mass, and sSFR for use where O32 is not available. We find that U increases at fixed stellar mass and sSFR by a factor of ~4 from z=2 to z=6, demonstrating that the redshift evolution encapsulates physics beyond that traced by stellar mass and sSFR alone. Finally, we show that a toy model with the first order assumption that HII region volume is proportional to galaxy volume can explain the excess redshift dependence of logU as being consistent with observed evolution in galaxy sizes.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

An extreme ram-pressure stripping event in a protocluster at redshift 4.3

In the nearby Universe, the environment plays a crucial role in suppressing star formation in dense regions. In particular, ram-pressure stripping (RPS) is a major mechanism for removing gas from galaxies in clusters, occurring when galaxies travel through a dense hot atmosphere and leave trailing gaseous wakes. By depleting the cold gas reservoir, RPS can drive outside-in quenching and is therefore thought to be an important route for transforming cluster galaxies. At earlier times, however, the hot atmosphere in protoclusters is expected to be immature, so environmental effects are commonly assumed to be dominated by gravitational interactions. Here we report ALMA and JWST observations of SPT2349$-$56-C26 (hereafter C26), a massive galaxy experiencing an extreme RPS event in the SPT2349$-$56 protocluster at $z\,{=}\,4.3$. More than half of the [CII]-traced cold gas lies outside its stellar body, with the emission peak offset by 6 kpc. These observations show that RPS can remove most of the cold gas from massive galaxies in dense protocluster cores as early as $z\,{=}\,4.3$, providing a direct hydrodynamic pathway for environmental quenching at $z\,{>}\,4$.

astro-ph.GA↗