Chemodynamical modelling of the galactic bulge and bar

Matthieu Portail, Christopher Wegg, Ortwin Gerhard, Melissa Ness

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present the first self-consistent chemodynamical model fitted to reproduce data for the galactic bulge, bar and inner disc. We extend the Made-to-Measure method to an augmented phase-space including the metallicity of stars, and show its first application to the bar region of the Milky Way. Using data from the ARGOS and APOGEE (DR12) surveys, we adapt the recent dynamical model from Portail et al. to reproduce the observed spatial and kinematic variations as a function of metallicity, thus allowing the detailed study of the 3D density distributions, kinematics and orbital structure of stars in different metallicity bins. We find that metal-rich stars with [Fe/H] ≥ -0.5 are strongly barred and have dynamical properties that are consistent with a common disc origin. Metal-poor stars with [Fe/H] ≤ -0.5 show strong kinematic variations with metallicity, indicating varying contributions from the underlying stellar populations. Outside the central kpc, metal-poor stars are found to have the density and kinematics of a thick disc while in the inner kpc, evidence for an extra concentration of metal-poor stars is found. Finally, the combined orbit distributions of all metallicities in the model naturally reproduce the observed vertex deviations in the bulge. This paper demonstrates the power of Made-to-Measure chemodynamical models, that when extended to other chemical dimensions will be very powerful tools to maximize the information obtained from large spectroscopic surveys such as APOGEE, GALAH and MOONS.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1233-1252
Number of pages20
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume470
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2017

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Chemodynamical modelling of the galactic bulge and bar'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this