2017/06/30 by V. Grisoni, E. Spitoni, F. Matteuccí +8 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Chemical evolution #Disc #Disc galaxy #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Halo #Metallicity #Milky Way #Physics #Star formation #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Thick disk #Thin disk #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stx2201
12 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
openalex publication_date 2017/08/24 · arxiv created 2017/08/29 · openalex created_date 2017/08/31 · arxiv updated 2017/11/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We study the chemical evolution of the thick and thin discs of the Galaxy by comparing detailed chemical evolution models with recent data from the Archéologie avec Matisse Basée sur les aRchives de l'ESO project. The data suggest that the stars in the thick and thin discs form two distinct sequences with the thick disc stars showing higher [α/Fe] ratios. We adopt two different approaches to model the evolution of thick and thin discs. In particular, we adopt (i) a two-infall approach where the thick disc forms fast and before the thin disc and by means of a fast gas accretion episode, whereas the thin disc forms by means of a second accretion episode on a longer time-scale; (ii) a parallel approach, where the two discs form in parallel but at different rates. By comparing our model results with the observed [Mg/Fe] versus [Fe/H] and the metallicity distribution functions in the two Galactic components, we conclude that the parallel approach can account for a group of α-enhanced metal-rich stars present in the data, whereas the two-infall approach cannot explain these stars unless they are the result of stellar migration. In both approaches, the thick disc has formed on a time-scale of accretion of 0.1 Gyr, whereas the thin disc formed on a time-scale of 7 Gyr in the solar region. In the two-infall approach, a gap in star formation between the thick and thin disc formation of several hundreds of Myr should be present, at variance with the parallel approach where no gap is present.