Origins of the Thick Disk as Traced by the Alpha Elements of Metal-poor Giant Stars Selected from Rave
Abstract
Theories of thick-disk formation can be differentiated by measurements of stellar elemental abundances. We have undertaken a study of metal-poor stars selected from the RAVE spectroscopic survey of bright stars to establish whether or not there is a significant population of metal-poor thick-disk stars ([Fe/H] <~ -1.0) and to measure their elemental abundances. In this Letter, we present abundances of four α-elements (Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti) and iron for a subsample of 212 red giant branch and 31 red clump/horizontal branch stars from this study. We find that the [α/Fe] ratios are enhanced, implying that enrichment proceeded by purely core-collapse supernovae. This requires that star formation in each star-forming region had a short duration. The relative lack of scatter in the [α/Fe] ratios implies good mixing in the interstellar medium prior to star formation. In addition, the ratios resemble that of the halo, indicating that the halo and thick disk share a similar massive star initial mass function. We conclude that the α-enhancement of the metal-poor thick disk implies that direct accretion of stars from dwarf galaxies similar to surviving dwarf galaxies today did not play a major role in the formation of the thick disk.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- October 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1088/2041-8205/721/2/L92
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1008.3828
- Bibcode:
- 2010ApJ...721L..92R
- Keywords:
-
- Galaxy: abundances;
- Galaxy: disk;
- stars: abundances;
- stars: late-type;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 2 figures, accepted by ApJ Letters