No Arabic abstract
We have derived the abundances of 36 chemical elements in one Cepheid star, ASAS 181024--2049.6, located R$_{rm G}= 2.53$ kpc from the Galactic center. This star falls within a region of the inner thin disc poorly sampled in Cepheids. Our spectral analysis shows that iron, magnesium, silicon, calcium and titanium LTE abundances in that star support the presence of a plateau-like abundance distribution in the thin disc within 5 kpc of the Galactic center, as previously suggested by cite{Maret15}. If confirmed, the flattening of the abundance gradient within that region could be the result of a decrease in the star formation rate due to dynamic effects, possibly from the central Galactic bar.
We derived elemental abundances in 27 Cepheids, the great majority situated within a zone of Galactocentric distances ranging from 5 to 7 kpc. One star of our sample, SU Sct, has a Galactocentric distance of about 3 kpc, and thus falls in a poorly investigated region of the inner thin disc. Our new results, combined with data on abundances in the very central part of our Galaxy taken from literature, show that iron, magnesium, silicon, sulfur, calcium and titanium LTE abundance radial distributions, as well as NLTE distribution of oxygen reveal a plateau-like structure or even positive abundance gradient in the region extending from the Galactic center to about 5 kpc.
We extend our previous work on the age-chemical abundance structure of the Galactic outer disc to the inner disc (4 < r < 8 kpc) based on the SDSS/APOGEE survey. Different from the outer disc, the inner disc stars exhibit a clear bimodal distribution in the [Mg/Fe]-[Fe/H] plane. While a number of scenarios have been proposed in the literature, it remains challenging to recover this bimodal distribution with theoretical models. To this end, we present a chemical evolution model embedding a complex multi-phase inner disc formation scenario that matches the observed bimodal [Mg/Fe]-[Fe/H] distribution. In this scenario, the formation of the inner disc is dominated by two main starburst episodes 6 Gyr apart with secular, low-level star formation activity in between. In our model, the first starburst occurs at early cosmic times (t~1 Gyr) and the second one 6 Gyr later at a cosmic time of t~7 Gyr. Both these starburst episodes are associated with gas accretion events in our model, and are quenched rapidly. The first starburst leads to the formation of the high-$alpha$ sequence, and the second starburst leads to the formation of the metal-poor low-$alpha$ sequence. The metal-rich low-$alpha$ stars, instead, form during the secular evolution phase between the two bursts. Our model shows that the $alpha$-dichotomy originates from the rapid suppression of star formation after the first starburst. The two starburst episodes are likely to be responsible for the formation of the geometric thick disc (z >1 kpc), with the old inner thick disc and the young outer thick disc forming during the first and the second starbursts, respectively.
We have performed a NLTE analysis of the infrared oxygen triplet for a large number of cepheid spectra obtained with the Hobby-Eberly telescope. These data were combined with our previous NLTE results for the stars observed with Max Planck Gesellschaft telescope with the aim to investigate oxygen abundance distribution in Galactic thin disc. We find the slope of the radial (O/H) gradient value to be equal -0.058 dex/kpc. Nevertheless, we found that there could be a hint that the distribution might become flatter in the outer parts of the disc. This is also supported by other authors who studied open clusters, planetary nebulae and H II regions. Some mechanisms of flattening are discussed.
The elemental abundance structure of the Galactic disc has been extensively studied in the solar neighbourhood using long-lived stars such as F and G dwarfs or K and M giants. These are stars whose atmospheres preserve the chemical composition of their natal gas clouds, and are hence excellent tracers of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. As far as we are aware, there are no such studies of the inner Galactic disc, which hampers our ability to constrain and trace the origin and evolution of the Milky Way. Therefore, we aim in this study to establish the elemental abundance trend(s) of the disc(s) in the inner regions of the Galaxy. Based on equivalent width measurements in high-resolution spectra obtained with the MIKE spectrograph on the Magellan II telescope on Las Campanas in Chile, we determine elemental abundances for 44 K-type red giant stars in the inner Galactic disc, located at Galactocentric distances of 4-7,kpc. The analysis method is identical to the one recently used on red giant stars in the Galactic bulge and in the nearby thin and thick discs, enabling us to perform a truly differential comparison of the different stellar populations. We present the first detailed elemental abundance study of a significant number of red giant stars in the inner Galactic disc. We find that these inner disc stars show the same type of chemical and kinematical dichotomy as the thin and thick discs show in the solar neighbourhood. The abundance trends of the inner disc agree very well with those of the nearby thick disc, and also to those of the Bulge. The chemical similarities between the Bulge and the Galactic thick disc stellar populations indicate that they have similar chemical histories, and any model trying to understand the formation and evolution of either of the two should preferably incorporate both of them.
We analyze the oxygen abundances of a stellar sample representative of the two major Galactic populations: the thin and thick disks. The aim is to investigate the differences between members of the Galactic disks and to contribute to the understanding on the origin of oxygen chemical enrichment in the Galaxy. The analysis is based on the [O,{sc i}]=6300.30,AA~ oxygen line in HR spectra ($Rsim$52,500) obtained from the GES Survey. By comparing the observed spectra with a theoretical dataset, computed in LTE with the SPECTRUM synthesis and ATLAS12 codes, we derive the oxygen abundances of 516 FGK dwarfs for which we have previously measured carbon abundances. Based on kinematic, chemical and dynamical considerations we identify 20 thin and 365 thick disk members. We study potential trends of both subsamples in terms of their chemistry ([O/H], [O/Fe], [O/Mg], and [C/O] versus [Fe/H] and [Mg/H]), age, and position in the Galaxy. Main results are: (a) [O/H] and [O/Fe] ratios versus [Fe/H] show systematic differences between thin and thick disk stars with enhanced O abundance of thick disk stars with respect to thin disk members and a monotonic decrement of [O/Fe] with increasing metallicity, even at metal-rich regime; (b) a smooth correlation of [O/Mg] with age in both populations, suggesting that this abundance ratio can be a good proxy of stellar ages within the Milky Way; (c) thin disk members with [Fe/H]$simeq0$ display a [C/O] ratio smaller than the solar value, suggesting a possibly outward migration of the Sun from lower Galactocentric radii.