ﻻ يوجد ملخص باللغة العربية
We combine Gaia data release 1 astrometry with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) images taken some ~10-15 years earlier, to measure proper motions of stars in the halo of our Galaxy. The SDSS-Gaia proper motions have typical statistical errors of 2 mas/yr down to r ~ 20 mag, and are robust to variations with magnitude and colour. Armed with this exquisite set of halo proper motions, we identify RR Lyrae, blue horizontal branch (BHB), and K giant stars in the halo, and measure their net rotation with respect to the Galactic disc. We find evidence for a gently rotating prograde signal (< $V_phi$ > ~ 5-25 km/s) in the halo stars, which shows little variation with Galactocentric radius out to 50 kpc. The average rotation signal for the three populations is < $V_phi$ > = 14 +/- 2 +/- 10 (syst.) km/s. There is also tentative evidence for a kinematic correlation with metallicity, whereby the metal richer BHB and K giant stars have slightly stronger prograde rotation than the metal poorer stars. Using the Auriga simulation suite we find that the old (T >10 Gyr) stars in the simulated halos exhibit mild prograde rotation, with little dependence on radius or metallicity, in general agreement with the observations. The weak halo rotation suggests that the Milky Way has a minor in situ halo component, and has undergone a relatively quiet accretion history.
We investigate the origin of the abundance ratios and scatter of $alpha$- and neutron-capture elements of old, metal-poor stars, using cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation. For this, we implement a novel treatment for the prod
The stellar halos of large galaxies represent a vital probe of the processes of galaxy evolution. They are the remnants of the initial bouts of star formation during the collapse of the proto-galactic cloud, coupled with imprint of ancient and on-goi
Determining the properties of old stellar populations (those with age >1 Gyr) has long involved the comparison of their integrated light, either in the form of photometry or spectroscopic indexes, with empirical or synthetic templates. Here we reeval
We examine metallicities, ages and orbital properties of halo stars in a Milky-Way like disk galaxy formed in the cosmological hydrodynamical MaGICC simulations. Halo stars were either accreted from satellites or they formed in situ in the disk or bu
Models of galaxy formation in a cosmological context predict that massive disk galaxies should have structured extended stellar halos. Recent studies in integrated light, however, report a few galaxies, including the nearby disk galaxy M101, that hav