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Register a new userSpectroscopic Observations of Obscured Populations in the Inner Galaxy: 2MASS-GC02, Terzan 4, and the 200 km/s stellar peak
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The interpretation of potentially new and already known stellar structures located at low-latitudes is hindered by the presence of dense gas and dust, as observations toward these sight-lines are limited. We have identified APOGEE stars belonging to the low-latitude globular clusters 2MASS-GC02 and Terzan 4, presenting the first chemical element abundances of stars residing in these poorly studied clusters. As expected, the signature of multiple populations co-existing in these metal-rich clusters is evident. We redetermine the radial velocity of 2MASS-GC02 to be -87 +- 7 km/s, finding that this clusters heliocentric radial velocity is offset by more than 150 km/s from the literature value. We investigate a potentially new low-latitude stellar structure, a kiloparsec-scale nuclear disk (or ring) which has been put forward to explain a high-velocity (V_{GSR} ~200 km/s) peak reported in several Galactic bulge fields based on the APOGEE commissioning observations. New radial velocities of field stars at (l,b)=(-6,0) are presented and combined with the APOGEE observations at negative longitudes to carry out this search. Unfortunately no prominent -200 km/s peak at negative longitudes along the plane of the Milky Way is apparent, as predicted for the signature of a nuclear feature. The distances and Gaia EDR3 proper motions of the high-V_{GSR} stars do not support the current models of stars on bar-supporting orbits as an explanation of the +200 km/s peak.
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We present the first high spectral resolution abundance analysis of two newly discovered Galactic globular clusters, namely Mercer 5 and 2MASS GC02 residing in regions of high interstellar reddening in the direction of the Galactic center. The data were acquired with the Phoenix high-resolution near-infrared echelle spectrograph at Gemini South (R~50000) in the 15500.0 A - 15575.0 A spectral region. Iron, Oxygen, Silicon, Titanium and Nickel abundances were derived for two red giant stars, in each cluster, by comparing the entire observed spectrum with a grid of synthetic spectra generated with MOOG. We found [Fe/H] values of -0.86 +/- 0.12 and -1.08 +/- 0.13 for Mercer 5 and 2MASS GC02 respectively. The [O/Fe], [Si/Fe] and [Ti/Fe] ratios of the measured stars of Mercer 5 follow the general trend of both bulge field and cluster stars at this metallicity, and are enhanced by > +0.3. The 2MASS GC02 stars have relatively lower ratios, but still compatible with other bulge clusters. Based on metallicity and abundance patterns of both objects we conclude that these are typical bulge globular clusters.
Metal-poor stars are important tools for tracing the early history of the Milky Way, and for learning about the first generations of stars. Simulations suggest that the oldest metal-poor stars are to be found in the inner Galaxy. Typical bulge surveys, however, lack low metallicity ([Fe/H] < -1.0) stars because the inner Galaxy is predominantly metal-rich. The aim of the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS) is to study the metal-poor and very metal-poor (VMP, [Fe/H] < -2.0) stars in this region. In PIGS, metal-poor targets for spectroscopic follow-up are selected from metallicity-sensitive CaHK photometry from the CFHT. This work presents the ~250 deg^2 photometric survey as well as intermediate-resolution spectroscopic follow-up observations for ~8000 stars using AAOmega on the AAT. The spectra are analysed using two independent tools: ULySS with an empirical spectral library, and FERRE with a library of synthetic spectra. The comparison between the two methods enables a robust determination of the stellar parameters and their uncertainties. We present a sample of 1300 VMP stars -- the largest sample of VMP stars in the inner Galaxy to date. Additionally, our spectroscopic dataset includes ~1700 horizontal branch stars, which are useful metal-poor standard candles. We furthermore show that PIGS photometry selects VMP stars with unprecedented efficiency: 86%/80% (lower/higher extinction) of the best candidates satisfy [Fe/H] < -2.0, as do 80%/63% of a larger, less strictly selected sample. We discuss future applications of this unique dataset that will further our understanding of the chemical and dynamical evolution of the innermost regions of our Galaxy.
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Integral field unit spectrographs allow the 2D exploration of the kinematics and stellar populations of galaxies, although they are generally restricted to small fields-of-view. Using the large field-of-view of the DEIMOS multislit spectrograph on Keck and our Stellar Kinematics using Multiple Slits (SKiMS) technique, we are able to extract sky-subtracted stellar light spectra to large galactocentric radii. Here we present a new DEIMOS mask design named SuperSKiMS that explores large spatial scales without sacrificing high spatial sampling. We simulate a set of observations with such a mask design on the nearby galaxy NGC 1023, showing that the kinematic and metallicity measurements can reach radii where the galaxy surface brightness is several orders of magnitude fainter than the sky. Such a technique is also able to reproduce the kinematic and metallicity 2D distributions obtained from literature integral field spectroscopy in the innermost galaxy regions. In particular, we use the simulated NGC 1023 kinematics to model its total mass distribution to large radii, obtaining comparable results with those from published integral field unit observation. Finally, from new spectra of NGC 1023 we obtain stellar 2D kinematics and metallicity distributions that show good agreement with integral field spectroscopy results in the overlapping regions. In particular, we do not find a significant offset between our SKiMS and the ATLAS$^rm{3D}$ stellar velocity dispersion at the same spatial locations.
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