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HERBS I: Metallicity and alpha enhancement along the Galactic bulge minor axis
Journal article   Peer reviewed

HERBS I: Metallicity and alpha enhancement along the Galactic bulge minor axis

L. Duong, M. Asplund, D. M. Nataf, K. C. Freeman, M. Ness and L. M. Howes
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol.486(3), pp.3586-3603
07/01/2019
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1104
url
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1903.09706View
Open Access

Abstract

To better understand the origin and evolution of the Milky Way bulge, we have conducted a survey of bulge red giant branch and clump stars using the High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We targeted ARGOS survey stars with predetermined bulge memberships, covering the full metallicity distribution function. The spectra have signal-to-noise ratios comparable to, and were analysed using the same methods as the GALAH survey. In this work, we present the survey design, stellar parameters, distribution of metallicity, and alpha-element abundances along the minor bulge axis at latitudes b = -10 degrees,-7.5 degrees, and -5 degrees. Our analysis of ARGOS stars indicates that the centroids of ARGOS metallicity components should be located approximate to 0.09 dex closer together. The vertical distribution of alpha-element abundances is consistent with the varying contributions of the different metallicity components. Closer to the plane, alpha abundance ratios are lower as themetal-rich population dominates. At higher latitudes, the alpha abundance ratios increase as the number of metal-poor stars increases. However, we find that the trend of alpha-enrichment with respect to metallicity is independent of latitude. Comparison of our results with those of GALAH DR2 revealed that for [Fe/H]approximate to -0.8, the bulge shares the same abundance trend as the high-alpha disc population. However, the metal-poor bulge population ([Fe/H] less than or similar to -0.8) show enhanced alpha abundance ratios compared to the disc/halo. These observations point to fairly rapid chemical evolution in the bulge, and that the metal-poor bulge population does not share the same similarity with the disc as the more metal-rich populations.
Astronomy & Astrophysics Physical Sciences Science & Technology

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