Marie Martig

Liverpool John Moores University

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Ivan Minchev

Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam

J. Falcón‐Barroso

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

Glenn van de Ven

University of Vienna

N. Bastian

Donostia International Physics Center

Matthias Steinmetz

Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam

C. Chiappini

Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam

Dimitri A. Gadotti

Durham University

Hans–Walter Rix

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Francesca Pinna

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

V. Silva Aguirre

University of Copenhagen

Cooperative Institutions

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Max Planck Society

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

Universidad de La Laguna

European Southern Observatory

Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics

Université Paris Cité

Aarhus University

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Red giant masses and ages derived from carbon and nitrogen abundances

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2016)

Marie Martig M. Fouesneau Hans‐Walter Rix Melissa Ness Szabolcs Mészáros

We show that the masses of red giant stars can be well predicted from their photospheric carbon and nitrogen abundances, in conjunction with their spectroscopic stellar labels log g, Teff, and [Fe/H]. This is qualitatively expected from mass-dependent post-main-sequence evolution. We here establish an empirical relation between these quantities by drawing on 1475 red giants with asteroseismic mass estimates from Kepler that also have spectroscopic labels from Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) DR12. We assess the accuracy of our model, and find that it predicts stellar masses with fractional rms errors of about 14 per cent (typically 0.2 M⊙). From these masses, we derive ages with rms errors of 40 per cent. This empirical model allows us for the first time to make age determinations (in the range 1–13 Gyr) for vast numbers of giant stars across the Galaxy. We apply our model to ∼52 000 stars in APOGEE DR12, for which no direct mass and age information was previously available. We find that these estimates highlight the vertical age structure of the Milky Way disc, and that the relation of age with [α/M] and metallicity is broadly consistent with established expectations based on detailed studies of the solar neighbourhood.

Red-giant branch

Red giant

Giant star

Stellar mass

10.1093/mnras/stv2830

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Citations (201)

Confirming chemical clocks: asteroseismic age dissection of the Milky Way disk(s)

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2018)

V. Silva Aguirre M. Bojsen-Hansen D. Slumstrup L. Casagrande Daisuke Kawata

Investigations of the origin and evolution of the Milky Way disk have long relied on chemical and kinematic identification of its components to reconstruct our Galactic past. Difficulties in determining precise stellar ages have restricted most studies to small samples, normally confined to the solar neighbourhood. Here we break this impasse with the help of asteroseismic inference and perform a chronology of the evolution of the disk throughout the age of the Galaxy. We chemically dissect the Milky Way disk population using a sample of red giant stars spanning out to 2~kpc in the solar annulus observed by the {\it Kepler} satellite, with the added dimension of asteroseismic ages. Our results reveal a clear difference in age between the low- and high-$\alpha$ populations, which also show distinct velocity dispersions in the $V$ and $W$ components. We find no tight correlation between age and metallicity nor [$\alpha$/Fe] for the high-$\alpha$ disk stars. Our results indicate that this component formed over a period of more than 2~Gyr with a wide range of [M/H] and [$\alpha$/Fe] independent of time. Our findings show that the kinematic properties of young $\alpha$-rich stars are consistent with the rest of the high-$\alpha$ population and different from the low-$\alpha$ stars of similar age, rendering support to their origin being old stars that went through a mass transfer or stellar merger event, making them appear younger, instead of migration of truly young stars formed close to the Galactic bar.

Thick disk

Stellar kinematics

10.1093/mnras/sty150

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Citations (148)

Redistribution of stars and gas in the star formation deserts of barred galaxies

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2019)

Charlotte E. Donohoe-keyes Marie Martig P. A. James Katarina Kraljic

Bars strongly influence the distribution of gas and stars within the central regions of their host galaxies. This is particularly pronounced in the star formation desert (SFD) which is defined as two symmetrical regions either side of the bar that show a deficit in young stars. Previous studies proposed that, if star formation is truncated because of the influence of the bar, then the age distribution of stars within the SFD could be used to determine the epoch of bar formation. To test this, we study the properties of SFDs in 6 galaxies from zoom-in cosmological re-simulations. Age maps reveal old regions on both sides of the bars, with a lack of stars younger than 10 Myr, confirming the SFD phenomenon. Local star formation is truncated in the SFDs because after the bar forms, gas in these regions is removed on 1 Gyr timescales. However, the overall age distribution of stars in the SFD does not show a sharp truncation after bar formation but rather a gradual downturn in comparison to that of the bar. This more subtle signature may still give information on bar formation epochs in observed galaxies, but the interpretation will be more difficult than originally hoped. The gradual drop in the SFD age distribution, instead of a truncation, is due to radial migration of stars born in the disk. The SFD is thus one of the only regions where an uncontaminated sample of stars only affected by radial migration can be studied.

10.1093/mnras/stz2474

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The vertical structure of the spiral galaxy NGC 3501: first stages of the formation of a thin metal-rich disc

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2023)

Natascha Sattler Francesca Pinna Nadine Neumayer J. Falcón‐Barroso Marie Martig

We trace the evolution of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3501, making use of its stellar populations extracted from deep integral-field spectroscopy MUSE observations. We present stellar kinematic and population maps, as well as the star formation history, of the south-western half of the galaxy. The derived maps of the stellar line-of-sight velocity and velocity dispersion are quite regular, show disc-like rotation, and no other structural component of the galaxy. However, maps of the stellar populations exhibit structures in the mass-weighted and light-weighted age, total metallicity and [Mg/Fe] abundance. These maps indicate that NGC 3501 is a young galaxy, consisting mostly of stars with ages between 2 to 8 Gyr. Also, they show a thicker more extended structure that is metal-poor and $\alpha$-rich, and another inner metal-rich and $\alpha$-poor one with smaller radial extension. While previous studies revealed that NGC 3501 shows only one morphological disc component in its vertical structure, we divided the galaxy into two regions: an inner metal-rich midplane and a metal-poor thicker envelope. Comparing the star formation history of the inner thinner metal-rich disc and the thicker metal-poor disc, we see that the metal-rich component evolved more steadily, while the metal-poor one experienced several bursts of star formation. We propose this spiral galaxy is being observed in an early evolutionary phase, with a thicker disc already in place and an inner thin disc in an early formation stage. So we are probably witnessing the birth of a future massive thin disc, continuously growing embedded in a preexisting thicker disc.

Barred spiral galaxy

Unbarred spiral galaxy

Irregular galaxy

Stellar population

10.1093/mnras/stad275

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Local variations of the stellar velocity ellipsoid – II. The effect of the bar in the inner regions of Auriga galaxies

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2022)

Daniel Walo-Martín Francesca Pinna Robert J. J. Grand Isabel Pérez J. Falcón‐Barroso

Theoretical works have shown that off-plane motions of bars can heat stars in the vertical direction during buckling but is not clear how do they affect the rest of components of the Stellar Velocity Ellipsoid (SVE). We study the 2D spatial distribution of the vertical, $\sigma_{z}$, azimuthal, $\sigma_{\phi}$ and radial, $\sigma_{r}$ velocity dispersions in the inner regions of Auriga galaxies, a set of high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in simulations, to unveil the influence of the bar on the stellar kinematics. $\sigma_{z}$ and $\sigma_{\phi}$ maps exhibit non-axisymmetric features that closely match the bar light distribution with low $\sigma$ regions along the bar major axis and high values in the perpendicular direction. On the other hand, $\sigma_{r}$ velocity dispersion maps present more axisymmetric distributions. We show that isophotal profile differences best capture the impact of the bar on the three SVE components providing strong correlations with bar morphology proxies although there is no relation with individual $\sigma$. Time evolution analysis shows that these differences are a consequence of the bar formation and that they tightly coevolve with the strength of the bar. We discuss the presence of different behaviours of $\sigma_{z}$ and its connection with observations. This work helps us understand the intrinsic $\sigma$ distribution and motivates the use of isophotal profiles as a mean to quantify the effect of bars.

Ellipsoid

Bar (unit)

10.1093/mnras/stac769

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Citations (2)

The ATLAS3D project – XXII. Low-efficiency star formation in early-type galaxies: hydrodynamic models and observations

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2013)

Marie Martig Alison F. Crocker F. Bournaud Éric Emsellem J. M. Gabor

We study the global efficiency of star formation in high resolution hydrodynamical simulations of gas discs embedded in isolated early-type and spiral galaxies. Despite using a universal local law to form stars in the simulations, we find that the early-type galaxies are offset from the spirals on the large-scale Kennicutt relation, and form stars 2 to 5 times less efficiently. This offset is in agreement with previous results on morphological quenching: gas discs are more stable against star formation when embedded in early-type galaxies due to the lower disc self-gravity and increased shear. As a result, these gas discs do not fragment into dense clumps and do not reach as high densities as in the spiral galaxies. Even if some molecular gas is present, the fraction of very dense gas (above 10^4 cm-3) is significantly reduced, which explains the overall lower star formation efficiency. We also analyse a sample of local early-type and spiral galaxies, measuring their CO and HI surface densities and their star formation rates as determined by their non-stellar 8um emission. As predicted by the simulations, we find that the early-type galaxies are offset from the Kennicutt relation compared to the spirals, with a twice lower efficiency. Finally, we validate our approach by performing a direct comparison between models and observations. We run a simulation designed to mimic the stellar and gaseous properties of NGC524, a lenticular galaxy, and find a gas disc structure and global star formation rate in good agreement with the observations. Morphological quenching thus seems to be a robust mechanism, and is also consistent with other observations of a reduced star formation efficiency in early-type galaxies in the COLD GASS survey. This lower efficiency of star formation is not enough to explain the formation of the whole Red Sequence, but can contribute to the reddening of some galaxies.

10.1093/mnras/sts594

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Citations (104)

The physics governing the upper truncation mass of the globular cluster mass function

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2022)

Meghan E Hughes Joel Pfeffer N. Bastian Marie Martig J. M. Diederik Kruijssen

The mass function of globular cluster (GC) populations is a fundamental observable that encodes the physical conditions under which these massive stellar clusters formed and evolved. The high-mass end of star cluster mass functions are commonly described using a Schechter function, with an exponential truncation mass $M_{c,*}$. For the GC mass functions in the Virgo galaxy cluster, this truncation mass increases with galaxy mass ($M_{*}$). In this paper we fit Schechter mass functions to the GCs in the most massive galaxy group ($M_{\mathrm{200}} = 5.14 \times 10^{13} M_{\odot}$) in the E-MOSAICS simulations. The fiducial cluster formation model in E-MOSAICS reproduces the observed trend of $M_{c,*}$ with $M_{*}$ for the Virgo cluster. We therefore examine the origin of the relation by fitting $M_{c,*}$ as a function of galaxy mass, with and without accounting for mass loss by two-body relaxation, tidal shocks and/or dynamical friction. In the absence of these mass-loss mechanisms, the $M_{c,*}$-$M_{*}$ relation is flat above $M_* > 10^{10} M_{\odot}$. It is therefore the disruption of high-mass GCs in galaxies with $M_{*}\sim 10^{10} M_{\odot}$ that lowers the $M_{c,*}$ in these galaxies. High-mass GCs are able to survive in more massive galaxies, since there are more mergers to facilitate their redistribution to less-dense environments. The $M_{c,*}-M_*$ relation is therefore a consequence of both the formation conditions of massive star clusters and their environmentally-dependent disruption mechanisms.

Truncation (statistics)

Initial mass function

Stellar mass

10.1093/mnras/stab3597

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Citations (6)

Fossil stellar streams and their globular cluster populations in the E-MOSAICS simulations

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2018)

Meghan E Hughes Joel Pfeffer Marie Martig N. Bastian Robert A. Crain

Stellar haloes encode a fossil record of a galaxy's accretion history, generally in the form of structures of low surface brightness, such as stellar streams. While their low surface brightness makes it challenging to determine their age, metallicity, kinematics, and spatial structure, the infalling galaxies also deposit globular clusters (GCs) in the halo, which are bright and therefore easier to observe and characterize. To understand how GCs associated with stellar streams can be used to estimate the stellar mass and the infall time of their parent galaxy, we examine a subset of 15 simulations of galaxies and their star clusters from the E-MOSAICS project. E-MOSAICS is a suite of hydrodynamical simulations incorporating a sub-grid model for GC formation and evolution. We find that more massive accreted galaxies typically contribute to younger and more metal-rich GCs. This lower age results from a more extended cluster formation history in more massive galaxies. In addition, at fixed stellar mass, galaxies that are accreted later host younger clusters, because they can continue to form GCs without being subjected to environmental influences for longer. This explains the large range of ages observed for clusters associated with the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy in the halo of the Milky Way compared to clusters that are thought to have formed in satellites accreted early in the Milky Way's formation history. Using the ages of the GCs associated with the Sagittarius dwarf, we estimate a virial radius crossing lookback time (infall time) of |$9.3 \pm 1.8\, {\rm Gyr}$|⁠.

Stellar mass

10.1093/mnras/sty2889

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Citations (41)

Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera near-infrared features in the outer parts of S4G galaxies

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2014)

Seppo Laine J. H. Knapen Juan-Carlos Muñoz-Mateos Taehyun Kim Sébastien Comerón

We present a catalogue and images of visually detected features, such as asymmetries, extensions, warps, shells, tidal tails, polar rings, and obvious signs of mergers or interactions, in the faint outer regions (at and outside of R_25) of nearby galaxies. This catalogue can be used in future quantitative studies that examine galaxy evolution due to internal and external factors. We are able to reliably detect outer region features down to a brightness level of 0.03 MJy/sr per pixel at 3.6 microns in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G). We also tabulate companion galaxies. We find asymmetries in the outer isophotes in 22+/-1 per cent of the sample. The asymmetry fraction does not correlate with galaxy classification as an interacting galaxy or merger remnant, or with the presence of companions. We also compare the detected features to similar features in galaxies taken from cosmological zoom re-simulations. The simulated images have a higher fraction (33 per cent) of outer disc asymmetries, which may be due to selection effects and an uncertain star formation threshold in the models. The asymmetries may have either an internal (e.g., lopsidedness due to dark halo asymmetry) or external origin.

Peculiar galaxy

10.1093/mnras/stu1642

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Citations (16)

Weighing stars from birth to death: mass determination methods across the HRD

The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review (2021)

Aldo Serenelli Achim Weiß C. Aerts George C. Angelou D. Baroch

Planetary science

10.1007/s00159-021-00132-9

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Citations (56)