Identifying High-metallicity M Giants at Intragroup Distances with Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Abstract
Tidal stripping and three-body interactions with the central supermassive black hole may eject stars from the Milky Way. These stars would comprise a set of "intragroup" stars that trace the past history of interactions in our galactic neighborhood. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7, we identify candidate solar-metallicity red giant intragroup stars using color cuts that are designed to exclude nearby M and L dwarfs. We present 677 intragroup candidates that are selected between 300 kpc and 2 Mpc, and are either the reddest intragroup candidates (M7-M10) or are L dwarfs at larger distances than previously detected.
- Publication:
-
The Astronomical Journal
- Pub Date:
- June 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-6256/143/6/128
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1202.2152
- Bibcode:
- 2012AJ....143..128P
- Keywords:
-
- Galaxy: halo;
- Galaxy: stellar content;
- Local Group;
- stars: late-type;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 table (for full version, see http://astro.phy.vanderbilt.edu/~palladl2), Accepted for publication in AJ