ヨネハラ アツノリ   YONEHARA ATSUNORI
  米原 厚憲
   所属   京都産業大学  理学部 宇宙物理・気象学科
   職種   教授
言語種別 英語
発行・発表の年月 2013/01
形態種別 その他
標題 Chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge as traced by microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars V. Evidence for a wide age distribution and a complex MDF
執筆形態 その他
掲載誌名 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
出版社・発行元 EDP SCIENCES S A
巻・号・頁 549,pp.id.A147 (26 pp)
著者・共著者 T. Bensby,J. C. Yee,S. Feltzing,J. A. Johnson,A. Gould,J. G. Cohen,M. Asplund,J. Melendez,S. Lucatello,C. Han,I. Thompson,A. Gal-Yam,A. Udalski,D. P. Bennett,I. A. Bond,W. Kohei,T. Sumi,D. Suzuki,K. Suzuki,S. Takino,P. Tristram,N. Yamai,A. Yonehara
概要 Based on high-resolution spectra obtained during gravitational microlensing events we present a detailed elemental abundance analysis of 32 dwarf and subgiant stars in the Galactic bulge. Combined with the sample of 26 stars from the previous papers in this series, we now have 58 microlensed bulge dwarfs and subgiants that have been homogeneously analysed. The main characteristics of the sample and the findings that can be drawn are: (i) the metallicity distribution (MDF) is wide and spans all metallicities between [Fe/H] = -1.9 to +0.6; (ii) the dip in the MDF around solar metallicity that was apparent in our previous analysis of a smaller sample (26 microlensed stars) is no longer evident; instead it has a complex structure and indications of multiple components are starting to emerge. A tentative interpretation is that there could be different stellar populations at interplay, each with a different scale height: the thin disk, the thick disk, and a bar population; (iii) the stars with [Fe/H] less than or similar to -0.1 are old with ages between 10 and 12 Gyr; (iv) the metal-rich stars with [Fe/H] greater than or similar to -0.1 show a wide variety of ages, ranging from 2 to 12 Gyr with a distribution that has a dominant peak around 4-5 Gyr and a tail towards higher ages; (v) there are indications in the [alpha/Fe] - [Fe/H] abundance trends that the "knee" occurs around [Fe/H] = -0.3 to -0.2,which is a slightly higher metallicity as compared to the "knee" for the local thick disk. This suggests that the chemical enrichment of the metal-poor bulge has been somewhat faster than what is observed for the local thick disk. The results from the microlensed bulge dwarf stars in combination with other findings in the literature, in particular the evidence that the bulge has cylindrical rotation, indicate that the Milky Way could be an almost pure disk galaxy. The bulge would then just be a conglomerate of the other Galactic stellar populations (thin disk, thick disk, halo, and ...?), residing together in the central parts of the Galaxy, influenced by the Galactic bar.
DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/201220678
ISSN 0004-6361