No Arabic abstract
Obtaining accurate and precise masses and ages for large numbers of giant stars is of great importance for unraveling the assemblage history of the Galaxy. In this paper, we estimate masses and ages of 6940 red giant branch (RGB) stars with asteroseismic parameters deduced from emph{Kepler} photometry and stellar atmospheric parameters derived from LAMOST spectra. The typical uncertainties of mass is a few per cent, and that of age is $sim$,20 per cent. The sample stars reveal two separate sequences in the age -- [$alpha$/Fe] relation -- a high--$alpha$ sequence with stars older than $sim$,8,Gyr and a low--$alpha$ sequence composed of stars with ages ranging from younger than 1,Gyr to older than 11,Gyr. We further investigate the feasibility of deducing ages and masses directly from LAMOST spectra with a machine learning method based on kernel based principal component analysis, taking a sub-sample of these RGB stars as a training data set. We demonstrate that ages thus derived achieve an accuracy of $sim$,24 per cent. We also explored the feasibility of estimating ages and masses based on the spectroscopically measured carbon and nitrogen abundances. The results are quite satisfactory and significantly improved compared to the previous studies.
Mapping lithium evolution for evolved stars will provide restrictions and constraints on the fundamental stellar interior physical processes, which further shed light on our understanding of the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Based on a sample of 1,848 giants with known evolutionary phases and lithium abundances from the LAMOST-kepler{} and LAMOST-emph{K}2 fields, we construct mass-radius diagrams to characterize the evolutionary features of lithium. The stars at red giant branch (RGB) phase show natural depletion along with their stellar evolution, particularly, there is no obvious crowd stars with anomalously high Li abundances near the bump. Most of the low-mass stars reaching their zero-age sequence of core-helium-burning (ZAHeB) have Li abundances around $sim1.0$,dex, which show an increase of Li abundance by $sim0.6$,dex compared to the stars above the bump of RGB. This suggests the helium flash can be responsible for moderate Li production. While for super Li-rich stars, some special mechanisms should be considered during helium flash. Other scenarios, such as merger, could also be interpretations given the Li-rich stars can be found at anytime during the steady state phase of core He-burning. During the core He-burning (HeB) phase, there is no indication of obvious lithium depletion.
We present a catalog of stellar age and mass estimates for a sample of 640,986 red giant branch (RGB) stars of the Galactic disk from the LAMOST Galactic Spectroscopic Survey (DR4). The RGB stars are distinguished from the red clump stars utilizing period spacing derived from the spectra with a machine learning method based on kernel principal component analysis (KPCA). Cross-validation suggests our method is capable of distinguishing RC from RGB stars with only 2 per cent contamination rate for stars with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) higher than 50. The age and mass of these RGB stars are determined from their LAMOST spectra with KPCA method by taking the LAMOST - $Kepler$ giant stars having asteroseismic parameters and the LAMOST-TGAS sub-giant stars based on isochrones as training sets. Examinations suggest that the age and mass estimates of our RGB sample stars with SNR $>$ 30 have a median error of 30 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively. Stellar ages are found to exhibit positive vertical and negative radial gradients across the disk, and the age structure of the disk is strongly flared across the whole disk of $6<R<13$,kpc. The data set demonstrates good correlations among stellar age, [Fe/H] and [$alpha$/Fe]. There are two separate sequences in the [Fe/H] -- [$alpha$/Fe] plane: a high--$alpha$ sequence with stars older than $sim$,8,Gyr and a low--$alpha$ sequence composed of stars with ages covering the whole range of possible ages of stars. We also examine relations between age and kinematic parameters derived from the Gaia DR2 parallax and proper motions. Both the median value and dispersion of the orbital eccentricity are found to increase with age. The vertical angular momentum is found to fairly smoothly decrease with age from 2 to 12,Gyr, with a rate of about $-$50,kpc,km,s$^{-1}$,Gyr$^{-1}$. A full table of the catalog is public available online.
The vast majority of Milky Way stellar halo stars were likely accreted from a small number ($lesssim$3) of relatively large dwarf galaxy accretion events. However, the timing of these events is poorly constrained, relying predominantly on indirect dynamical mixing arguments or imprecise age measurements of stars associated with debris structures. Here, we aim to infer robust stellar ages for stars associated with galactic substructures to more directly constrain the merger history of the Galaxy. By combining kinematic, asteroseismic, and spectroscopic data where available, we infer stellar ages for a sample of 10 red giant stars that were kinematically selected to be associated with the stellar halo, a subset of which are associated with the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage halo substructure, and compare their ages to 3 red giant stars in the Galactic disk. Despite systematic differences in both absolute and relative ages determined by this work, age rankings of stars in this sample are robust. Passing the same observable inputs to multiple stellar age determination packages, we measure a weighted average age for the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage stars in our sample of 8 $pm$ 3 (stat.) $pm$ 1 (sys.) Gyr. We also determine hierarchical ages for the populations of Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage, in situ halo and disk stars, finding a Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage population age of 8.0$^{+3.2}_{-2.3}$ Gyr. Although we cannot distinguish hierarchical population ages of halo or disk structures with our limited data and sample of stars, this framework should allow distinct characterization of Galactic substructures using larger stellar samples and additional data available in the near future.
Owing to their simplicity and ease of application, seismic scaling relations are widely used to determine the properties of stars exhibiting solar-like oscillations, such as solar twins and red giants. So far, no seismic scaling relations for determining the ages of red giant stars have been developed. Such relations would be desirable for galactic archaeology, which uses stellar ages to map the history of the Milky Way. The ages of red giants must instead be estimated with reference to grids of theoretical stellar models, which can be computationally intensive. Here I present an exhaustive search for scaling age relations involving different combinations of observable quantities. The candidate scaling relations are calibrated and tested using more than 1,000 red giant stars whose ages were obtained via grid-based modeling. I report multiple high-quality scaling relations for red giant branch stars, the best of which are shown to be approximately as accurate as grid-based modeling with typical uncertainties of 15%. Additionally, I present new scaling mass and radius relations for red giants as well.
We present Li, Na, Al and Fe abundances of 199 lower red giant branch stars members of the stellar system Omega Centauri, using high-resolution spectra acquired with FLAMES at the Very Large Telescope. The A(Li) distribution is peaked at A(Li) ~ 1 dex with a prominent tail toward lower values. The peak of the distribution well agrees with the lithium abundances measured in lower red giant branch stars in globular clusters and Galactic field stars. Stars with A(Li) ~ 1 dex are found at metallicities lower than [Fe/H] ~ -1.3 dex but they disappear at higher metallicities. On the other hand, Li-poor stars are found at all the metallicities. The most metal-poor stars exhibit a clear Li-Na anticorrelation, with about 30% of the sample with A(Li) lower than ~ 0.8 dex, while in normal globular clusters these stars represent a small fraction. Most of the stars with [Fe/H] > -1.6 dex are Li-poor and Na-rich. The Li depletion measured in these stars is not observed in globular clusters with similar metallicities and we demonstrate that it is not caused by the proposed helium enhancements and/or young ages. Hence, these stars formed from a gas already depleted in lithium. Finally, we note that Omega Centauri includes all the populations (Li-normal/Na-normal, Li-normal/Na-rich and Li-poor/Na-rich stars) observed, to a lesser extent, in mono-metallic GCs.