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C. C. Worley

Publications and source records attributed to C. C. Worley.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The K2 Galactic Caps Project -- Going Beyond the \textit{Kepler} Field and Ageing the Galactic Disc

Analyses of data from spectroscopic and astrometric surveys have led to conflicting results concerning the vertical characteristics of the Milky Way. Ages are often used to provide clarity, but typical uncertainties of $>$ 40\,\% restrict the validity of the inferences made. Using the \textit{Kepler} APOKASC sample for context, we explore the global population trends of two K2 campaign fields (3 and 6), which extend further vertically out of the Galactic plane than APOKASC. We analyse the properties of red giant stars utilising three asteroseismic data analysis methods to cross-check and validate detections. The Bayesian inference tool PARAM is used to determine the stellar masses, radii and ages. Evidence of a pronounced red giant branch bump and an [$α$/Fe] dependence on the position of the red clump is observed from the radii distribution of the K2 fields. Two peaks in the age distribution centred at $\sim$5 and and $\sim$12 Gyr are found using a sample with $σ_{\rm{age}}$ $<$ 35\,\%. In a comparison with \textit{Kepler}, we find the older peak to be more prominent for K2. This age bimodality is also observed based on a chemical selection of low- ($\leq$ 0.1) and high- ($>$ 0.1) [$α$/Fe] stars. As a function of vertical distance from the Galactic mid-plane ($|Z|$), the age distribution shows a transition from a young to old stellar population with increasing $|Z|$ for the K2 fields. Further coverage of campaign targets with high resolution spectroscopy is required to increase the yield of precise ages achievable with asteroseismology.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: The inner disc, intermediate-age open cluster Pismis 18

Pismis 18 is a moderately populated, intermediate-age open cluster located within the solar circle at a Galactocentric distance of about 7 kpc. Few open clusters have been studied in detail in the inner disc region before the Gaia-ESO Survey. New data from the Gaia-ESO Survey allowed us to conduct an extended radial velocity membership study as well as spectroscopic metallicity and detailed chemical abundance measurements for this cluster. Gaia-ESO Survey data for 142 potential members, lying on the upper MS and on the red clump, yielded radial velocity measurements, which, together with proper motion measurements from the Gaia DR2, were used to determine the systemic velocity of the cluster and membership of individual stars. Photometry from Gaia DR2 was used to re-determine cluster parameters based on high confidence member stars only. Cluster abundance measurements of six radial-velocity member stars with UVES high-resolution spectroscopy are presented for 23 elements. According to the new estimates, based on high confidence members, Pismis 18 has an age of $700^{+40}_{-50}$ Myr, interstellar reddening of E(B-V) = $0.562^{+0.012}_{-0.026}$ mag and a de-reddened distance modulus of $DM_0 = 11.96^{+0.10}_{-0.24}$ mag. The median metallicity of the cluster (using the six UVES stars) is [Fe/H] = $+0.23 \pm 0.05$ dex, with [$α$/Fe]= $0.07 \pm 0.13$ and a slight enhancement of s- and r- neutron-capture elements. With the present work, we fully characterized the open cluster Pismis 18, confirming its present location in the inner disc. We estimated a younger age than the previous literature values and gave, for the first time, its metallicity and its detailed abundances. Its [$α$/Fe] and [s-process/Fe], both slightly super-solar, are in agreement with other inner-disc open clusters observed by the Gaia-ESO survey. [abridged]

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4MOST Scientific Operations

The 4MOST instrument is a multi-object spectrograph that will address Galactic and extragalactic science cases simultaneously by observing targets from a large number of different surveys within each science exposure. This parallel mode of operation and the survey nature of 4MOST require some distinct 4MOST-specific operational features within the overall operations model of ESO. The main feature is that the 4MOST Consortium will deliver, not only the instrument, but also contractual services to the user community, which is why 4MOST is also described as a facility. This white paper concentrates on information particularly useful to answering the forthcoming Call for Letters of Intent.

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4MOST Survey Strategy Plan

The current status of and motivation for the 4MOST Survey Strategy, as developed by the Consortium science team, are presented here. Key elements of the strategy are described, such as sky coverage, number of visits and total exposure times in different parts of the sky, and how to deal with different observing conditions. The task of organising the strategy is not simple, with many different surveys that have vastly different target brightnesses and densities, sample completeness levels, and signal-to-noise requirements. We introduce here a number of concepts that we will use to ensure all surveys are optimised. Astronomers who are planning to submit a Participating Survey proposal are strongly encouraged to read this article and any relevant 4MOST Survey articles in this issue of The Messenger such that they can optimally complement and benefit from the planned surveys of the 4MOST Consortium.

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4MOST Consortium Survey 1: The Milky Way Halo Low-Resolution Survey

The goal of this survey is to study the formation and evolution of the Milky Way halo to deduce its assembly history and the 3D distribution of mass in the Milky Way. The combination of multi-band photometry, Gaia proper motion and parallax data, and radial velocities and the metallicity and elemental abundances obtained from low-resolution spectra of halo giants with 4MOST, will yield an unprecedented characterisation of the Milky Way halo and its interface with the thick disc. The survey will produce a volume- and magnitude-limited complete sample of giant stars in the halo. It will cover at least 10,000 square degrees of high Galactic latitude, and measure line-of-sight velocities with a precision of 1-2 km/s as well as metallicities to within 0.2 dex.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: Asymmetric expansion of the Lagoon Nebula cluster NGC 6530 from GES and Gaia DR2

The combination of precise radial velocities from multi-object spectroscopy and highly accurate proper motions from Gaia DR2 opens up the possibility for detailed 3D kinematic studies of young star forming regions and clusters. Here, we perform such an analysis by combining Gaia-ESO Survey spectroscopy with Gaia astrometry for ~900 members of the Lagoon Nebula cluster, NGC 6530. We measure the 3D velocity dispersion of the region to be $5.35^{+0.39}_{-0.34}$~km~s$^{-1}$, which is large enough to suggest the region is gravitationally unbound. The velocity ellipsoid is anisotropic, implying that the region is not sufficiently dynamically evolved to achieve isotropy, though the central part of NGC 6530 does exhibit velocity isotropy that suggests sufficient mixing has occurred in this denser part. We find strong evidence that the stellar population is expanding, though this is preferentially occurring in the declination direction and there is very little evidence for expansion in the right ascension direction. This argues against a simple radial expansion pattern, as predicted by models of residual gas expulsion. We discuss these findings in the context of cluster formation, evolution and disruption theories.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: age spread in the star forming region NGC6530 from the HR diagram and gravity indicators

In very young clusters, stellar age distribution is the empirical proof of the duration of star formation (SF) and of the physical mechanisms involved in the process. We derived accurate stellar ages for the cluster NGC6530, associated with the Lagoon Nebula to infer its SF history. We use the Gaia-ESO survey observations and Gaia DR2 data, to derive cluster membership and fundamental stellar parameters. We identified 652 confirmed and 9 probable members. The reddening inferred for members and non-members allows us to distinguish MS stars and giants, in agreement with the distances inferred from Gaia DR2 data. The foreground and background stars show a spatial pattern that traces the 3D structure of the nebular dust component. We derive stellar ages for 382 confirmed cluster members and we find that the gravity-sensitive gamma index distribution for M stars is correlated with stellar age. For all members with Teff<5500 K, the mean logarithmic age is 5.84 (units of years) with a dispersion of 0.36 dex. The age distribution of stars with accretion and/or disk (CTTSe) is similar to that of stars without accretion and without disk (WTTSp). We interpret this dispersion as evidence of a real age spread since the total uncertainties on age determinations, derived from Monte Carlo simulations, are significantly smaller than the observed spread. This conclusion is supported by the evidence of a decreasing of the gravity-sensitive gamma index as a function of stellar ages. The presence of the age spread is also supported by the spatial distribution and the kinematics of old and young members. In particular, members with accretion and/or disk, formed in the last 1 Myr, show evidence of subclustering around the cluster center, in the Hourglass Nebula and in the M8-E region, suggesting a possible triggering of star formation events by the O-type star ionization fronts.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: Evidence of atomic diffusion in M67?

Investigating the chemical homogeneity of stars born from the same molecular cloud at virtually the same time is very important for our understanding of the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium and with it the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. One major cause of inhomogeneities in the abundances of open clusters is stellar evolution of the cluster members. In this work, we investigate variations in the surface chemical composition of member stars of the old open cluster M67 as a possible consequence of atomic diffusion effects taking place during the main-sequence phase. The abundances used are obtained from high-resolution UVES/FLAMES spectra within the framework of the Gaia-ESO Survey. We find that the surface abundances of stars on the main sequence decrease with increasing mass reaching a minimum at the turn-off. After deepening of the convective envelope in sub-giant branch stars, the initial surface abundances are restored. We found the measured abundances to be consistent with the predictions of stellar evolutionary models for a cluster with the age and metallicity of M67. Our findings indicate that atomic diffusion poses a non-negligible constraint on the achievable precision of chemical tagging methods.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: kinematical and dynamical study of four young open clusters

Context. The origin and dynamical evolution of star clusters is an important topic in stellar astrophysics. Several models have been proposed to understand the formation of bound and unbound clusters and their evolution, and these can be tested by examining the kinematical and dynamical properties of clusters over a wide range of ages and masses. Aims. We use the Gaia-ESO Survey products to study four open clusters (IC 2602, IC 2391, IC 4665, and NGC 2547) that lie in the age range between 20 and 50 Myr. Methods. We employ the gravity index $γ$ and the equivalent width of the lithium line at 6708 $Å$, together with effective temperature $\rm{T_{eff}}$, and the metallicity of the stars in order to discard observed contaminant stars. Then, we derive the cluster radial velocity dispersions $σ_c$, the total cluster mass $\rm{M}_{tot}$, and the half mass radius $r_{hm}$. Using the $Gaia$-DR1 TGAS catalogue, we independently derive the intrinsic velocity dispersion of the clusters from the astrometric parameters of cluster members. Results. The intrinsic radial velocity dispersions derived by the spectroscopic data are larger than those derived from the TGAS data, possibly due to the different masses of the considered stars. Using $\rm{M}_{tot}$ and $r_{hm}$ we derive the virial velocity dispersion $σ_{vir}$ and we find that three out of four clusters are supervirial. This result is in agreement with the hypothesis that these clusters are dispersing, as predicted by the "residual gas expulsion" scenario. However, recent simulations show that the virial ratio of young star clusters may be overestimated if it is determined using the global velocity dispersion, since the clusters are not fully relaxed.

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The AMBRE project: The thick thin disk and thin thick disk of the Milky Way

We analyze 494 main sequence turnoff and subgiant stars from the AMBRE:HARPS survey. These stars have accurate astrometric information from \textit{Gaia}/DR1, providing reliable age estimates with relative uncertainties of $\pm1-2$ Gyr and allowing precise orbital determinations. The sample is split based on chemistry into a low-[Mg/Fe] sequence, which are often identified as thin disk stellar populations, and a high-[Mg/Fe] sequence, which are often associated with the thick disk. We find that the high-[Mg/Fe] chemical sequence has extended star formation for several Gyr and is coeval with the oldest stars of the low-[Mg/Fe] chemical sequence: both the low- and high-[Mg/Fe] sequences were forming stars at the same time. The high-[Mg/Fe] stellar populations are only vertically extended for the oldest, most-metal poor and highest [Mg/Fe] stars. When comparing vertical velocity dispersion for both sequences, the high-[Mg/Fe] sequence has lower velocity dispersion than the low-[Mg/Fe] sequence for stars of similar age. Identifying either group as thin or thick disk based on chemistry is misleading. The stars belonging to the high-[Mg/Fe] sequence have perigalacticons that originate in the inner disk, while the perigalacticons of stars on the low-[Mg/Fe] sequence are generally around the solar neighborhood. From the orbital properties of the stars, the high-and low-[Mg/Fe] sequences are most likely a reflection of the chemical enrichment history of the inner and outer disk populations; radial mixing causes both populations to be observed in situ at the solar position. Based on these results, we emphasize that it is important to be clear in defining what populations are being referenced when using the terms thin and thick disk, and that ideally the term thick disk should be reserved for purely geometric definitions to avoid confusion and be consistent with definitions in external galaxies.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: open clusters in Gaia-DR1 - a way forward to stellar age calibration

We describe the methodologies that, taking advantage of Gaia-DR1 and the Gaia-ESO Survey data, enable the comparison of observed open star cluster sequences with stellar evolutionary models. The final, long-term goal is the exploitation of open clusters as age calibrators. We perform a homogeneous analysis of eight open clusters using the Gaia-DR1 TGAS catalogue for bright members, and information from the Gaia-ESO Survey for fainter stars. Cluster membership probabilities for the Gaia-ESO Survey targets are derived based on several spectroscopic tracers. The Gaia-ESO Survey also provides the cluster chemical composition. We obtain cluster parallaxes using two methods. The first one relies on the astrometric selection of a sample of bona fide members, while the other one fits the parallax distribution of a larger sample of TGAS sources. Ages and reddening values are recovered through a Bayesian analysis using the 2MASS magnitudes and three sets of standard models. Lithium depletion boundary (LDB) ages are also determined using literature observations and the same models employed for the Bayesian analysis. For all but one cluster, parallaxes derived by us agree with those presented in Gaia Collaboration et al. (2017), while a discrepancy is found for NGC 2516; we provide evidence supporting our own determination. Inferred cluster ages are robust against models and are generally consistent with literature values. The systematic parallax errors inherent in the Gaia DR1 data presently limit the precision of our results. Nevertheless, we have been able to place these eight clusters onto the same age scale for the first time, with good agreement between isochronal and LDB ages where there is overlap. Our approach appears promising and demonstrates the potential of combining Gaia and ground-based spectroscopic datasets.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: Churning through the Milky Way

We attempt to determine the relative fraction of stars that have undergone significant radial migration by studying the orbital properties of metal-rich ([Fe/H]$>0.1$) stars within 2 kpc of the Sun using a sample of more than 3,000 stars selected from iDR4 of the Gaia-ESO Survey. We investigate the kinematic properties, such as velocity dispersion and orbital parameters, of stellar populations near the sun as a function of [Mg/Fe] and [Fe/H], which could show evidence of a major merger in the past history of the Milky Way. This was done using the stellar parameters from the Gaia-ESO Survey along with proper motions from PPMXL to determine distances, kinematics, and orbital properties for these stars to analyze the chemodynamic properties of stellar populations near the Sun. Analyzing the kinematics of the most metal-rich stars ([Fe/H]$>0.1$), we find that more than half have small eccentricities ($e<0.2$) or are on nearly circular orbits. Slightly more than 20\% of the metal-rich stars have perigalacticons $R_p>7$ kpc. We find that the highest [Mg/Fe], metal-poor populations have lower vertical and radial velocity dispersions compared to lower [Mg/Fe] populations of similar metallicity by $\sim10$ km s$^{-1}$. The median eccentricity increases linearly with [Mg/Fe] across all metallicities, while the perigalacticon decreases with increasing [Mg/Fe] for all metallicities. Finally, the most [Mg/Fe]-rich stars are found to have significant asymmetric drift and rotate more than 40 km s$^{-1}$ slower than stars with lower [Mg/Fe] ratios. While our results cannot constrain how far stars have migrated, we propose that migration processes are likely to have played an important role in the evolution of the Milky Way, with metal-rich stars migrating from the inner disk toward to solar neighborhood and past mergers potentially driving enhanced migration of older stellar populations in the disk.

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The AMBRE project: Iron-peak elements in the solar neighbourhood

The aim of this paper is to characterise the abundance patterns of five iron-peak elements (Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, and Zn) for which the stellar origin and chemical evolution are still debated. We automatically derived iron peak (Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, and Zn) and alpha element (Mg) chemical abundances for 4666 stars. We used the bimodal distribution of [Mg/Fe] to chemically classify sample stars into different Galactic substructures: thin disc, metal-poor and high-alpha metal rich, high-alpha and low-alpha metal-poor populations. High-alpha and low-alpha metal-poor populations are fully distinct in Mg, Cu, and Zn. Thin disc trends of [Ni/Fe] and [Cu/Fe] are very similar and show a small increase at supersolar metallicities. Thin and thick disc trends of Ni and Cu are very similar and indistinguishable. Mn looks different from Ni and Cu. [Mn/Fe] trends of thin and thick discs actually have noticeable differences: the thin disc is slightly Mn richer than the thick disc. [Zn/Fe] trends look very similar to those of [alpha/Fe] trends. The dispersion of results in both discs is low (approx 0.05 dex for [Mg, Mn, and Cu/Fe]) and is even much lower for [Ni/Fe] (approx 0.035 dex). Zn is an alpha-like element and could be used to separate thin and thick disc stars. [Mn/Mg] ratio could also be a very good tool for tagging Galactic substructures. Some models can partially reproduce the observed Mg, Zn, and, Cu behaviours. Models mostly fail to reproduce Mn and Ni in all metallicity domains, however, models adopting yields normalised from solar chemical properties reproduce Mn and Ni better, suggesting that there is still a lack of realistic theoretical yields of some iron-peak elements. Very low scatter (approx 0.05 dex) in thin and thick disc sequences could provide an observational constrain for Galactic evolutionary models that study the efficiency of stellar radial migration.

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The AMBRE project: a study of Li evolution in the Galactic thin and thick discs

Recent observations suggest a "double-branch" behaviour of Li/H versus metallicity in the local thick and thin discs. This is reminiscent of the corresponding O/Fe versus Fe/H behaviour, which has been explained as resulting from radial migration in the Milky Way disc. We use a semi-analytical model of disc evolution with updated chemical yields and parameterised radial migration. We explore the cases of long-lived (red giants of a few Gy lifetime) and shorter-lived (Asymptotic Giant Branch stars of several 10$^8$ yr) stellar sources of Li, as well as those of low and high primordial Li. We show that both factors play a key role in the overall Li evolution. We find that the observed "two-branch" Li behaviour is only directly obtained in the case of long-lived stellar Li sources and low primordial Li. In all other cases, the data imply systematic Li depletion in stellar envelopes, thus no simple picture of the Li evolution can be obtained. This concerns also the reported Li/H decrease at supersolar metallicities.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: Matching Chemo-Dynamical Simulations to Observations of the Milky Way

The typical methodology for comparing simulated galaxies with observational surveys is usually to apply a spatial selection to the simulation to mimic the region of interest covered by a comparable observational survey sample. In this work we compare this approach with a more sophisticated post-processing in which the observational uncertainties and selection effects (photometric, surface gravity and effective temperature) are taken into account. We compare a `solar neighbourhood analogue' region in a model Milky Way-like galaxy simulated with RAMSES-CH with fourth release Gaia-ESO survey data. We find that a simple spatial cut alone is insufficient and that observational uncertainties must be accounted for in the comparison. This is particularly true when the scale of uncertainty is large compared to the dynamic range of the data, e.g. in our comparison, the [Mg/Fe] distribution is affected much more than the more accurately determined [Fe/H] distribution. Despite clear differences in the underlying distributions of elemental abundances between simulation and observation, incorporating scatter to our simulation results to mimic observational uncertainty produces reasonable agreement. The quite complete nature of the Gaia-ESO survey means that the selection function has minimal impact on the distribution of observed age and metal abundances but this would become increasingly more important for surveys with narrower selection functions.

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The AMBRE Project: chemical evolution models for the Milky Way thick and thin discs

We study the chemical evolution of the thick and thin discs of the Galaxy by comparing detailed chemical evolution models with recent data from the AMBRE Project. The data suggest that the stars in the thick and thin discs form two distinct sequences with the thick disc stars showing higher [α/Fe] ratios. We adopt two different approaches to model the evolution of thick and thin discs. In particular, we adopt: i) a two-infall approach where the thick disc forms fast and before the thin disc and by means of a fast gas accretion episode, whereas the thin disc forms by means of a second accretion episode on a longer timescale; ii) a parallel approach, where the two discs form in parallel but at different rates. By comparing our model results with the observed [Mg/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] and the metallicity distribution functions in the two Galactic components, we conclude that the parallel approach can account for a group of α-enhanced metal rich stars present in the data, whereas the two-infall approach cannot explain these stars unless they are the result of stellar migration. In both approaches, the thick disc has formed on a timescale of accretion of 0.1 Gyr, whereas the thin disc formed on a timescale of 7 Gyr in the solar region. In the two-infall approach a gap in star formation between the thick and thin disc formation of several hundreds of Myr should be present, at variance with the parallel approach where no gap is present.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: double, triple and quadruple-line spectroscopic binary candidates

The Gaia-ESO Survey (GES) is a large spectroscopic survey that provides a unique opportunity to study the distribution of spectroscopic multiple systems among different populations of the Galaxy. We aim at detecting binarity/multiplicity for stars targeted by the GES from the analysis of the cross-correlation functions (CCFs) of the GES spectra with spectral templates. We develop a method based on the computation of the CCF successive derivatives to detect multiple peaks and determine their radial velocities, even when the peaks are strongly blended. The parameters of the detection of extrema (DOE) code have been optimized for each GES GIRAFFE and UVES setup to maximize detection. This code therefore allows to automatically detect multiple line spectroscopic binaries (SBn, n>1). We apply this method on the fourth GES internal data release and detect 354 SBn candidates (342 SB2, 11 SB3 and even one SB4), including only 9 SB2 known in the literature. This implies that about 98% of these SBn candidates are new (because of their faint visual magnitude that can reach V=19). Visual inspection of the SBn candidate spectra reveals that the most probable candidates have indeed a composite spectrum. Among SB2 candidates, an orbital solution could be computed for two previously unknown binaries: 06404608+0949173 (known as V642 Mon) in NGC 2264 and 19013257-0027338 in Berkeley 81. A detailed analysis of the unique SB4 (four peaks in the CCF) reveals that HD 74438 in the open cluster IC 2391 is a physically bound stellar quadruple system. The SB candidates belonging to stellar clusters are reviewed in detail to discard false detections. We warn against the use of atmospheric parameters for these system components rather than by SB-specific pipelines. Our implementation of an automatic detection of spectroscopic binaries within the GES has allowed an efficient discovery of many new multiple systems.

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The Gaia-ESO Survey: Exploring the complex nature and origins of the Galactic bulge populations

Abridged: We used the fourth internal data release of the Gaia-ESO survey to characterize the bulge chemistry, spatial distribution, kinematics, and to compare it chemically with the thin and thick disks. The sample consist on ~2500 red clump stars in 11 bulge fields ($-10^\circ\leq l\leq+8^\circ$ and $-10^\circ\leq b\leq-4^\circ$), and a set of ~6300 disk stars selected for comparison. The bulge MDF is confirmed to be bimodal across the whole sampled area, with metal-poor stars dominating at high latitudes. The metal-rich stars exhibit bar-like kinematics and display a bimodality in their magnitude distribution, a feature which is tightly associated with the X-shape bulge. They overlap with the metal-rich end of the thin disk sequence in the [Mg/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] plane. Metal-poor bulge stars have a more isotropic hot kinematics and do not participate in the X-shape bulge. With similar Mg-enhancement levels, the position of the metal-poor bulge sequence "knee" is observed at [Fe/H]$_{knee}=-0.37\pm0.09$, being 0.06 dex higher than that of the thick disk. It suggests a higher SFR for the bulge than for the thick disk. Finally, we present a chemical evolution model that suitably fits the whole bulge sequence by assuming a fast ($<1$ Gyr) intense burst of stellar formation at early epochs. We associate metal-rich stars with the B/P bulge formed from the secular evolution of the early thin disk. On the other hand, the metal-poor subpopulation might be the product of an early prompt dissipative collapse dominated by massive stars. Nevertheless, our results do not allow us to firmly rule out the possibility that these stars come from the secular evolution of the early thick disk. This is the first time that an analysis of the bulge MDF and $α$-abundances has been performed in a large area on the basis of a homogeneous, fully spectroscopic analysis of high-resolution, high S/N data.

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