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The stellar population structure of the Galactic disk

3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

3 Pith papers citing it
abstract

The spatial structure of stellar populations with different chemical abundances in the Milky Way contains a wealth of information on Galactic evolution over cosmic time. We use data on 14,699 red-clump stars from the APOGEE survey, covering 4 kpc <~ R <~ 15 kpc, to determine the structure of mono-abundance populations (MAPs)---stars in narrow bins in [a/Fe] and [Fe/H]---accounting for the complex effects of the APOGEE selection function and the spatially-variable dust obscuration. We determine that all MAPs with enhanced [a/Fe] are centrally concentrated and are well-described as exponentials with a scale length of 2.2+/-0.2 kpc over the whole radial range of the disk. We discover that the surface-density profiles of low-[a/Fe] MAPs are complex: they do not monotonically decrease outwards, but rather display a peak radius ranging from ~5 kpc to ~13 kpc at low [Fe/H]. The extensive radial coverage of the data allows us to measure radial trends in the thickness of each MAP. While high-[a/Fe] MAPs have constant scale heights, low-[a/Fe] MAPs flare. We confirm, now with high-precision abundances, previous results that each MAP contains only a single vertical scale height and that low-[Fe/H], low-[a/Fe] and high-[Fe/H], high-[a/Fe] MAPs have intermediate (h_Z~300 to 600 pc) scale heights that smoothly bridge the traditional thin- and thick-disk divide. That the high-[a/Fe], thick disk components do not flare is strong evidence against their thickness being caused by radial migration. The correspondence between the radial structure and chemical-enrichment age of stellar populations is clear confirmation of the inside-out growth of galactic disks. The details of these relations will constrain the variety of physical conditions under which stars form throughout the MW disk.

years

2026 2 2021 1

representative citing papers

The chemical make-up of the Sun: A 2020 vision

astro-ph.SR · 2021-05-04 · accept · novelty 5.0

Revised solar photospheric abundances yield Z/X = 0.0187 with C, N, O at 8.46, 7.83, 8.69, preserving the solar modeling discrepancy and revealing a modest volatile-refractory offset from CI chondrites.

citing papers explorer

Showing 3 of 3 citing papers.

  • Rogue Ones: Orbital census of Galactic Cepheids and their Anomalies astro-ph.GA · 2026-06-09 · unverdicted · none · ref 118 · internal anchor

    A 6D kinematic census identifies 18 anomalous Cepheids with extreme orbits, including one possibly scattered by globular cluster E3, and finds consistency between dynamical and stellar ages.

  • Grain-size evolution and rapid dust growth in high-redshift galaxies astro-ph.GA · 2026-06-04 · conditional · none · ref 79 · internal anchor

    A multiphase ISM grain-size model with low supernova dust yield reproduces observed dust-to-stellar mass ratios and UV luminosity functions at z=7-12 by letting small grains seed rapid metal accretion.

  • The chemical make-up of the Sun: A 2020 vision astro-ph.SR · 2021-05-04 · accept · none · ref 261 · internal anchor

    Revised solar photospheric abundances yield Z/X = 0.0187 with C, N, O at 8.46, 7.83, 8.69, preserving the solar modeling discrepancy and revealing a modest volatile-refractory offset from CI chondrites.