Browsing by Author "Garcia-Hernandez, D. A."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    APOGEE chemical abundances of globular cluster giants in the inner Galaxy
    (2017) Schiavon, Ricardo P.; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Frinchaboy, Peter M.; Zasowski, Gail; Meszaros, Szabolcs; Garcia-Hernandez, D. A.; Cohen, Roger E.; Tang, Baitian; Villanova, Sandro; Geisler, Douglas; Beers, Timothy C.; Fernandez-Trincado, J. G.; Garcia Perez, Ana E.; Lucatello, Sara; Majewski, Steven R.; Martell, Sarah L.; O'Connell, Robert W.; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Carrera, Ricardo; Lane, Richard R.; Malanushenko, Elena; Malanushenko, Viktor; Munoz, Ricardo R.; Nitschelm, Christian; Oravetz, Daniel; Pan, Kaike; Roman-Lopes, Alexandre; Schultheis, Matthias; Simmons, Audrey
    We report chemical abundances obtained by Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III/Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment for giant stars in five globular clusters located within 2.2 kpc of the Galactic Centre. We detect the presence of multiple stellar populations in four of those clusters (NGC 6553, NGC 6528, Terzan 5 and Palomar 6) and find strong evidence for their presence in NGC 6522. All clusters with a large enough sample present a significant spread in the abundances of N, C, Na and Al, with the usual correlations and anticorrelations between various abundances seen in other globular clusters. Our results provide important quantitative constraints on theoretical models for self-enrichment of globular clusters, by testing their predictions for the dependence of yields of elements such as Na, N, C and Al on metallicity. They also confirm that, under the assumption that field N-rich stars originate from globular cluster destruction, they can be used as tracers of their parental systems in the high-metallicity regime.
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    Exploring the Stellar Age Distribution of the Milky Way Bulge Using APOGEE
    (2020) Hasselquist, Sten; Zasowski, Gail; Feuillet, Diane K.; Schultheis, Mathias; Nataf, David M.; Anguiano, Borja; Beaton, Rachael L.; Beers, Timothy C.; Cohen, Roger E.; Cunha, Katia; Fernandez-Trincado, Jose G.; Garcia-Hernandez, D. A.; Geisler, Doug; Holtzman, Jon A.; Johnson, Jennifer; Lane, Richard R.; Majewski, Steven R.; Bidin, Christian Moni; Nitschelm, Christian; Roman-Lopes, Alexandre; Schiavon, Ricardo; Smith, Verne V.; Sobeck, Jennifer
    We present stellar age distributions of the Milky Way bulge region using ages for similar to 6000 high-luminosity (log (g), metal-rich ([Fe/H] >= -0.5) bulge stars observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment. Ages are derived using The Cannon label-transfer method, trained on a sample of nearby luminous giants with precise parallaxes for which we obtain ages using a Bayesian isochrone-matching technique. We find that the metal-rich bulge is predominantly composed of old stars (>8 Gyr). We find evidence that the planar region of the bulge (vertical bar Z(GC)vertical bar <= 0.25 kpc) is enriched in metallicity, Z, at a faster rate (dZ/dt similar to 0.0034 Gyr(-1)) than regions farther from the plane (dZ/dt similar to 0.0013 Gyr(-1) at vertical bar Z(GC)vertical bar > 1.00 kpc). We identify a nonnegligible fraction of younger stars (age similar to 2-5 Gyr) at metallicities of +0.2 < [Fe/H] < +0.4. These stars are preferentially found in the plane (vertical bar Z(GC)vertical bar <= 0.25 kpc) and at R-cy approximate to 2-3 kpc, with kinematics that are more consistent with rotation than are the kinematics of older stars at the same metallicities. We do not measure a significant age difference between stars found inside and outside the bar. These findings show that the bulge experienced an initial starburst that was more intense close to the plane than far from the plane. Then, star formation continued at supersolar metallicities in a thin disk at 2 kpc less than or similar to R-cy less than or similar to 3 kpc until similar to 2 Gyr ago.
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    Spatial variations in the Milky Way disc metallicity-age relation
    (2019) Feuillet, Diane K.; Frankel, Neige; Lind, Karin; Frinchaboy, Peter M.; Garcia-Hernandez, D. A.; Lane, Richard R.; Nitschelm, Christian; Roman-Lopes, Alexandre
    Stellar ages are a crucial component to studying the evolution of the Milky Way. Using Gaia DR2 distance estimates, it is now possible to estimate stellar ages for a larger volume of evolved stars through isochrone matching. This work presents [M/H]-age and [alpha/M]-age relations derived for different spatial locations in the Milky Way disc. These relations are derived by hierarchically modelling the star formation history of stars within a given chemical abundance bin. For the first time, we directly observe that significant variation is apparent in the [M/H]-age relation as a function of both Galactocentric radius and distance from the disc midplane. The [M/H]-age relations support claims that radial migration has a significant effect in the plane of the disc. Using the [M/H] bin with the youngest mean age at each radial zone in the plane of the disc, the present-day metallicity gradient is measured to be -0.059 +/- 0.010 dex kpc(-1), in agreement with Cepheids and young field stars. We find a vertically flared distribution of young stars in the outer disc, confirming predictions of models and previous observations. The mean age of the [M/H]-[alpha/M] distribution of the solar neighbourhood suggests that the high-[M/H] stars are not an evolutionary extension of the low-alpha sequence. Our observational results are important constraints to Galactic simulations and models of chemical evolution.
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    The Open Cluster Chemical Abundances and Mapping Survey. IV. Abundances for 128 Open Clusters Using SDSS/APOGEE DR16
    (2020) Donor, John; Frinchaboy, Peter M.; Cunha, Katia; O'Connell, Julia E.; Prieto, Carlos Allende; Almeida, Andres; Anders, Friedrich; Beaton, Rachael; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Brownstein, Joel R.; Carrera, Ricardo; Chiappini, Cristina; Cohen, Roger; Garcia-Hernandez, D. A.; Geisler, Doug; Hasselquist, Sten; Jonsson, Henrik; Lane, Richard R.; Majewski, Steven R.; Minniti, Dante; Bidin, Christian Moni; Pan, Kaike; Roman-Lopes, Alexandre; Sobeck, Jennifer S.; Zasowski, Gail
    The Open Cluster Chemical Abundances and Mapping (OCCAM) survey aims to constrain key Galactic dynamical and chemical evolution parameters by the construction of a large, comprehensive, uniform, infrared-based spectroscopic data set of hundreds of open clusters. This fourth contribution from the OCCAM survey presents analysis using Sloan Digital Sky Survey/APOGEE DR16 of a sample of 128 open clusters, 71 of which we designate to be "high quality" based on the appearance of their color-magnitude diagram. We find the APOGEE DR16 derived [Fe/H] abundances to be in good agreement with previous high-resolution spectroscopic open cluster abundance studies. Using the high-quality sample, we measure Galactic abundance gradients in 16 elements, and find evolution of some of the [X/Fe] gradients as a function of age. We find an overall Galactic [Fe/H] versus R-GC gradient of -0.068 0.001 dex kpc(-1) over the range of 6 R-GC < 13.9 kpc; however, we note that this result is sensitive to the distance catalog used, varying as much as 15%. We formally derive the location of a break in the [Fe/H] abundance gradient as a free parameter in the gradient fit for the first time. We also measure significant Galactic gradients in O, Mg, S, Ca, Mn, Cr, Cu, Na, Al, and K, some of which are measured for the first time. Our large sample allows us to examine four well-populated age bins in order to explore the time evolution of gradients for a large number of elements and comment on possible implications for Galactic chemical evolution and radial migration.