No Arabic abstract
Recently it has been proposed that there are two types of SN Ia progenitors -- short-lived and long-lived. On the basis of this idea, we develope a theory of a unified mechanism for the formation of the bimodal radial distribution of iron and oxygen in the Galactic disc. The underlying cause for the formation of the fine structure of the radial abundance pattern is the influence of spiral arms, specifically, the combined effect of the corotation resonance and turbulent diffusion. From our modelling we conclude that to explain the bimodal radial distributions simultaneously for oxygen and iron and to obtain approximately equal total iron output from different types of supernovae, the mean ejected iron mass per supernova event should be the same as quoted in literature if maximum mass of stars, that eject heavy elements, is $50 M_{odot}$. For the upper mass limit of $70 M_{odot}$ the production of iron by a supernova II explosion should be increased by about 1.5 times.
The formation of the Galactic disc is an enthusiastically debated issue. Numerous studies and models seek to identify the dominant physical process(es) that shaped its observed properties. Taking advantage of the improved coverage of the inner Milky Way provided by the SDSS DR16 APOGEE catalogue and of the ages published in the APOGEE-AstroNN Value Added Catalogue (VAC), we examine the radial evolution of the chemical and age properties of the Galactic stellar disc, with the aim to better constrain its formation. Using a sample of 199,307 giant stars with precise APOGEE abundances and APOGEE-astroNN ages, selected in a +/-2 kpc layer around the galactic plane, we assess the dependency with guiding radius of: (i) the median metallicity, (ii) the ridge lines of the [Fe/H]-[Mg/Fe] and age-[Mg/Fe] distributions and (iii) the Age Distribution Function (ADF). The giant star sample allows us to probe the radial behaviour of the Galactic disc from Rg = 0 to 14-16 kpc. The thick disc [Fe/H]-[Mg/Fe] ridge lines follow closely grouped parallel paths, supporting the idea that the thick disc did form from a well-mixed medium. However, the ridge lines present a small drift in [Mg/Fe], which decreases with increasing guiding radius. At sub-solar metallicity, the intermediate and outer thin disc [Fe/H]-[Mg/Fe] ridge lines follow parallel sequences shifted to lower metallicity as the guiding radius increases. We interpret this pattern, as the signature of a dilution of the inter-stellar medium from Rg~6 kpc to the outskirt of the disc, which occured before the onset of the thin disc formation. The APOGEE-AstroNN VAC provides stellar ages for statistically significant samples of thin disc stars from the Galactic centre up to Rg~14 kpc. An important result provided by this dataset, is that the thin disc presents evidence of an inside-out formation up to R_g~10-12 kpc.(Abridged)
We examine the possible dependence of the radial oxygen abundance distribution on non-axisymmetrical structures (bar/spirals) and other macroscopic parameters such as the mass, the optical radius R25, the color g-r, and the surface brightness of the galaxy. A sample of disk galaxies from the CALIFA DR3 is considered. We adopted the Fourier amplitude A2 of the surface brightness as a quantitative characteristic of the strength of non-axisymmetric structures in a galactic disk, in addition to the commonly used morphologic division for A, AB, and B types based on the Hubble classification. To distinguish changes in local oxygen abundance caused by the non-axisymmetrical structures, the multiparametric mass--metallicity relation was constructed as a function of parameters such as the bar/spiral pattern strength, the disk size, color index g-r in the SDSS bands, and central surface brightness of the disk. The gas-phase oxygen abundance gradient is determined by using the R calibration. We find that there is no significant impact of the non-axisymmetric structures such as a bar and/or spiral patterns on the local oxygen abundance and radial oxygen abundance gradient of disk galaxies. Galaxies with higher mass, however, exhibit flatter oxygen abundance gradients in units of dex/kpc, but this effect is significantly less prominent for the oxygen abundance gradients in units of dex/R25 and almost disappears when the inner parts are avoided. We show that the oxygen abundance in the central part of the galaxy depends neither on the optical radius R25 nor on the color g-r or the surface brightness of the galaxy. Instead, outside the central part of the galaxy, the oxygen abundance increases with g-r value and central surface brightness of the disk.
The halo and disc globular cluster population can be used as a tracer of the primordial epochs of the Milky Way formation. In this work, literature data of globular clusters ages, chemical abundances, and structural parameters are studied, explicitly focussing on the origin of the known split in the age-metallicity relation of globular clusters. When the alpha-element abundances, which are less strongly affected by the internal light-element spread of globular clusters (Si, Ca), are considered, a very low observational scatter among metal-poor clusters is observed. A plateau at [SiCa/Fe]~0.35 dex, with a dispersion of only 0.05 dex is observed up to a metallicity of about -0.75 dex. Only a few metal-poor clusters in this metallicity interval present low [SiCa/Fe] abundances. Moreover, metal-rich globular clusters show a knee in the [alpha/Fe] versus [Fe/H] plane around [Fe/H] -0.75 dex. As a consequence, if a substantial fraction of galactic globular clusters has an external origin, they have to be mainly formed either in galaxies that are massive enough to ensure high levels of [alpha/Fe] element abundances even at intermediate metallicity, or in lower mass dwarf galaxies accreted by the Milky Way in their early phases of formation. Finally, clusters in the metal-poor branch of the AMR present an anti-correlation of [SiCa/Fe] with the total cluster magnitude, while this is not the case for metal-rich branch clusters. In addition, this lack of faint high-alpha clusters in the young metal-poor population is in contrast with what is observed for old and more metal-poor clusters, possibly reflecting a higher heterogeneity of formation environments at lower metallicity. Accretion of high-mass satellites, as a major contribution to the current Milky Way globular cluster system both in the metal-poor and the metal-intermediate regime is compatible with the observations.
We used the spectroscopic and astrometric data provided from the GALAH DR2 and Gaia DR2, respectively, for a large sample of stars to investigate the behaviour of the [$alpha$/Fe] abundances via two procedures, i.e. kinematically and spectroscopically. With the kinematical procedure, we investigated the distribution of the [$alpha$/Fe] abundances into the high/low probability thin disc, and high/low probability thick-disc populations in terms of total space velocity, [Fe/H] abundance, and age. The high probability thin-disc stars dominate in all sub-intervals of [$alpha$/Fe], including the rich ones: [$alpha$/Fe]$>0.3$ dex, where the high probability thick-disc stars are expected to dominate. This result can be explained by the limiting apparent magnitude of the GALAH DR2 ($V<14$ mag) and intermediate Galactic latitude of the star sample. Stars in the four populations share equivalent [$alpha$/Fe] and [Fe/H] abundances, total space velocities and ages. Hence, none of these parameters can be used alone for separation of a sample of stars into different populations. High probability thin-disc stars with abundance $-1.3<{rm[Fe/H]}leq -0.5$ dex and age $9<tauleq13$ Gyr are assumed to have different birth places relative to the metal rich and younger ones. With the spectroscopic procedure, we separated the sample stars into $alpha$-rich and $alpha$-poor categories by means of their ages as well as their [$alpha$/Fe] and [Fe/H] abundances. Stars older than 8 Gyr are richer in [$alpha$/Fe] than the younger ones. We could estimate the abundance [$alpha$/Fe]=0.14 dex as the boundery separating the $alpha$-rich and $alpha$-poor sub-samples in the [$alpha$/Fe]$times$[Fe/H] plane.
Supernovae are the dominant source of chemical enrichment of galaxies, and they are an important source of energy to heat the interstellar medium and accelerate cosmic rays. Our knowledge of supernovae in the Milky Way is based mostly on the study of Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs), providing an (incomplete) record to supernova activity over the last ~100,000 yr. Here we report on an investigation of the spatial distribution of Galactic SNRs. Given the limited number of SNRs it is common to assume a functional form for the Galactocentric distribution of SNRs. However, several functional forms have been used in the past, without much justification for the radial distribution. For example, one often used functional form implies that no supernova activity is present in the Galactic Centre region. However, the presence of a magnetar and a SNR near the Galactic Centre suggest that a spatial distribution with zero SNRs at the Galactic Centre is not realistic. In light of these concerns we reevaluate the Galactic SNR distribution. We provide a brief outline of the main detection biases in finding SNRs and we investigate whether or not the use of the most common functional form is justified and how it compares to other models for the SNR distribution. We do this by analysing the longitudinal distribution of SNRs. We find that a simple exponential distribution is the most consistent and simplest model for describing the radial SNR distribution in the Galaxy and draw comparisons with the massive star formation and metallicity distributions.