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Gang Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Gang Zhao.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Milky Way Mass with K Giants and BHB Stars Using LAMOST, SDSS/SEGUE, and Gaia: 3D Spherical Jeans Equation and Tracer Mass Estimator

We measure the enclosed Milky Way mass profile to Galactocentric distances of $\sim70$ and $\sim50$ kpc using the smooth, diffuse stellar halo samples of Bird et al. The samples are LAMOST and SDSS/SEGUE K giants (KG) and SDSS/SEGUE blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars with accurate metallicities. The 3D kinematics are available through LAMOST and SDSS/SEGUE distances and radial velocities and {\it Gaia} DR2 proper motions. Two methods are used to estimate the enclosed mass: 3D spherical Jeans equation and Evans et al. tracer mass estimator (TME). We remove substructure via the Xue et al. method based on integrals of motion. We evaluate the uncertainties on our estimates due to random sampling noise, systematic distance errors, the adopted density profile, and non-virialization and non-spherical effects of the halo. The tracer density profile remains a limiting systematic in our mass estimates, although within these limits we find reasonable agreement across the different samples and the methods applied. Out to $\sim70$ and $\sim50$ kpc, the Jeans method yields total enclosed masses of $4.3\pm0.95$ (random) $\pm0.6$ (systematic) $\times10^{11}$ M$_\odot$ and $4.1\pm1.2$ (random) $\pm0.6$ (systematic) $\times10^{11}$ M$_\odot$ for the KG and BHB stars, respectively. For the KG and BHB samples we find a dark matter virial mass of $M_{200}=0.55^{+0.15}_{-0.11}$ (random) $\pm0.083$ (systematic) $\times10^{12}$ M$_\odot$ and $M_{200}=1.00^{+0.67}_{-0.33}$ (random) $\pm0.15$ (systematic) $\times10^{12}$ M$_\odot$, respectively.

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The stellar parameters and elemental abundances from low-resolution spectra I: 1.2 million giants from LAMOST DR8

As a typical data-driven method, deep learning becomes a natural choice for analysing astronomical data nowadays. In this study, we built a deep convolutional neural network to estimate basic stellar parameters $T\rm{_{eff}}$, log g, metallicity ([M/H] and [Fe/H]) and [$α$/M] along with nine individual elemental abundances ([C/Fe], [N/Fe], [O/Fe], [Mg/Fe], [Al/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], [Mn/Fe], [Ni/Fe]). The neural network is trained using common stars between the APOGEE survey and the LAMOST survey. We used low-resolution spectra from LAMOST survey as input, and measurements from APOGEE as labels. For stellar spectra with the signal-to-noise ratio in g band larger than 10 in the test set, the mean absolute error (MAE) is 29 K for $T\rm{_{eff}}$, 0.07 dex for log g, 0.03 dex for both [Fe/H] and [M/H], and 0.02 dex for [$α$/M]. The MAE of most elements is between 0.02 dex and 0.04 dex. The trained neural network was applied to 1,210,145 giants, including sub-giants, from LAMOST DR8 within the range of stellar parameters 3500 K < $T\rm{_{eff}}$ < 5500 K, 0.0 dex < log g < 4.0 dex, -2.5 dex < [Fe/H] < 0.5 dex. The distribution of our results in the chemical spaces is highly consistent with APOGEE labels and stellar parameters show consistency with external high-resolution measurements from GALAH. The results in this study allow us to further studies based on LAMOST data and deepen our understanding of the accretion and evolution history of the Milky Way. The electronic version of the value added catalog is available at http://www.lamost.org/dr8/v1.1/doc/vac.

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Influence of the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus on the density shape of the Galactic stellar halo revealed by halo K giants from the LAMOST survey

We present a study of the influence of the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus (GSE) on the density shape of the Galactic stellar halo using 11624 K giants from the LAMOST survey. Every star is assigned a probability of being a member of the GSE based on its spherical velocities and metallicity by a Gaussian Mixture Model. We divide the stellar halo into two parts by the obtained probabilities, of which one is composed of the GSE members and defined as the GSE-related halo, and the other one is referred to as the GSE-removed halo. Using a non-parametric method, the radial number density profiles of the two stellar halos can be well described by a single power law with a variable flattening $q$ ($r = \sqrt{R^2+[(Z/q(r))]^2}, ν= {ν_0}r^{-α}$). The index $α$ is $4.92\pm0.12$ for the GSE-related halo and $4.25\pm0.14$ for the GSE-removed halo. Both the two stellar halos are vertically flattened at smaller radii but become more spherical at larger radii. We find that the GSE-related halo is less vertically flattened than the GSE-removed halo, and the difference of $q$ between the two stellar halos ranges from 0.07 to 0.15. However, after the consideration of the bias, it is thought to be within 0.08 at most of the radii. Finally, we compare our results with two Milky Way analogues which experience a significant major merger in the TNG50 simulation. The study of the two analogues also shows that the major merger-related stellar halo has a smaller ellipticity than the major merger-removed stellar halo.

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A spectroscopic study of blue supergiant stars in Local Group spiral galaxies: Andromeda and Triangulum

Low-resolution LAMOST and Keck spectra of blue supergiant stars distributed over the disks of the Local Group spiral galaxies M 31 and M 33 are analyzed to determine stellar effective temperatures, gravities, metallicities, and reddening. Logarithmic metallicities at the center of the galaxies (in solar units) of $0.30\pm0.09$ and $0.11\pm0.04$ and metallicity gradients of $-0.37\pm0.13$ dex/$R_{25}$ and $-0.36\pm0.16$ dex/$R_{25}$ are measured for M 31 and M 33, respectively. For M 33 the 2-dimensional distribution of metallicity indicates a deviation from azimutal symmetry with an off-centre peak. The flux-weighted gravity-luminosity relationship of blue supergiant stars is used to determine a distance modulus of 24.51$\pm$0.13 mag for M 31 and 24.93$\pm$0.07 mag for M 33. For M 31 the flux-weighted gravity--luminosity relationship (FGLR) distance agrees well with other methods. For M 33 the FGLR-based distance is larger than the distances from Cepheids studies but it is in good agreement with work on eclipsing binaries, planetary nebulae , long-period variables, and the tip of the red giant branch.

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Overview of the LAMOST survey in the first decade

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), also known as the Guoshoujing Telescope, is a major national scientific facility for astronomical research located in Xinglong, China. Beginning with a pilot survey in 2011, LAMOST has been surveying the night sky for more than 10 years. The LAMOST survey covers various objects in the Universe, from normal stars to peculiar ones, from the Milky Way to other galaxies, and from stellar black holes and their companions to quasars that ignite ancient galaxies. Until the latest data release 8, the LAMOST survey has released spectra for more than 10 million stars, ~220,000 galaxies, and ~71,000 quasars. With this largest celestial spectra database ever constructed, LAMOST has helped astronomers to deepen their understanding of the Universe, especially for our Milky Way galaxy and the millions of stars within it. In this article, we briefly review the characteristics, observations, and scientific achievements of LAMOST. In particular, we show how astrophysical knowledge about the Milky Way has been improved by LAMOST data.

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Revisit NGC 5466 Tidal Stream with $Gaia$, SDSS/SEGUE and LAMOST

By mining the data from $Gaia$ EDR3, SDSS/SEGUE DR16 and LAMOST DR8, 11 member stars of the NGC 5466 tidal stream are detected and 7 of them are newly identified. To reject contaminators, a variety of cuts are applied in sky position, color-magnitude diagram, metallicity, proper motion and radial velocity. We compare our data to a mock stream generated by modeling the cluster's disruption under a smooth Galactic potential plus the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The concordant trends in phase-space between the model and observations imply that the stream might have been perturbed by LMC. The two most distant stars among 11 detected members trace the stream's length to $60^\circ$ of sky, supporting and extending the previous length of $45^\circ$. Given that NGC 5466 is so distant and potentially has a longer tail than previously thought, we expect that NGC 5466 tidal stream could be a useful tool in constraining the Milky Way gravitational field.

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Four-hundred Very Metal-Poor Stars Studied with LAMOST and Subaru. II. Elemental abundances

We present homogeneous abundance analysis of over 20 elements for 385 very metal-poor (VMP) stars based on the LAMOST survey and follow-up observations with the Subaru Telescope. It is the largest high-resolution VMP sample (including 363 new objects) studied by a single program, and the first attempt to accurately determine evolutionary stages for such a large sample based on Gaia parallaxes. The sample covers a wide metallicity range from [Fe/H]=-1.7 down to [Fe/H]=-4.3, including over 110 objects with [Fe/H]<-3.0. The expanded coverage in evolutionary status makes it possible to define abundance trends respectively for giants and turn-off stars. The newly obtained abundance data confirm most abundance trends found by previous studies, but also provide useful update and new sample of outliers. The Li plateau is seen in -2.5 < [Fe/H] <-1.7 in our sample, whereas the average Li abundance is clearly lower at lower metallicity. Mg, Si, and Ca are overabundant with respect to Fe, showing decreasing trend with increasing metallicity. Comparisons with chemical evolution models indicate that the over-abundance of Ti, Sc, and Co are not well reproduced by current theoretical predictions. Correlations are seen between Sc and alpha-elements, while Zn shows a detectable correlation only with Ti but not with other alpha-elements. The fraction of carbon-enhanced stars ([C/Fe]> 0.7) is in the range of 20-30% for turn-off stars depending on the treatment of objects for which C abundance is not determined, which is much higher than that in giants (~8%). Twelve Mg-poor stars ([Mg/Fe] < 0.0) have been identified in a wide metallicity range from [Fe/H] =-3.8 through -1.7. Twelve Eu-rich stars ([Eu/Fe]> 1.0) have been discovered in -3.4 <[Fe/H]< -2.0, enlarging the sample of r-process-enhanced stars with relatively high metallicity.

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Four-hundred Very Metal-poor Stars studied with LAMOST and Subaru. I. Survey Design, Follow-up Program, and Binary Frequency

The chemical abundances of very metal-poor stars provide important constraints on the nucleosynthesis of the first generation of stars and early chemical evolution of the Galaxy. We have obtained high-resolution spectra with the Subaru Telescope for candidates of very metal-poor stars selected with a large survey of Galactic stars carried out with LAMOST. In this series of papers, we report on the elemental abundances of about 400 very metal-poor stars and discuss the kinematics of the sample obtained by combining the radial velocities measured in this study and recent astrometry obtained with Gaia. This paper provides an overview of our survey and follow-up program, and reports radial velocities for the whole sample. We identify seven double-lined spectroscopic binaries from our high-resolution spectra, for which radial velocities of the components are reported. We discuss the frequency of such relatively short-period binaries at very low metallicity.

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Effect of surface H$_2$ on molecular hydrogen formation on interstellar grains

We investigate how the existence of hydrogen molecules on grain surfaces may affect H$_2$ formation efficiency in diffuse and translucent clouds. Hydrogen molecules are able to reduce the desorption energy of H atoms on grain surfaces in models. The detailed microscopic Monte Carlo method is used to perform model simulations. We found that the impact of the existence of H$_2$ on H$_2$ formation efficiency strongly depends on the diffusion barriers of H$_2$ on grain surfaces. Diffuse cloud models that do not consider surface H$_2$ predict that H atom recombination efficiency is above 0.5 over a grain temperature (T) range 10 K and 14 K. The adopted H$_2$ diffusion barriers in diffuse cloud models that consider surface H$_2$ are 80$\%$ H$_2$ desorption energies so that H$_2$ can be trapped in stronger binding sites. Depending on model parameters, these diffuse cloud models predict that the recombination efficiency is between nearly 0 and 0.5 at 10 K $\leq$ T $\leq$ 14 K. Translucent cloud model results show that H$_2$ formation efficiency is not affected by the existence of surface H$_2$ if the adopted average H$_2$ diffusion barrier on grain surfaces is low (194 K) so that H$_2$ can diffuse rapidly on grain surfaces. However, the recombination efficiency can drop to below 0.002 at T $\geq$ 10 K if higher average H$_2$ diffusion barrier is used (255 K) in translucent cloud models.

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Spectroscopic Study of M33 with LAMOST survey. I. Chemical gradients from nebulae

Morphological and chemical structures of M33 are investigated with LAMOST DR7 survey. Physical parameters, extinction, chemical composition of He, N, O, Ne, S, Cl, Ar (where available), and radial velocities were determined for 110 nebulae (95 H\ii\ regions and 15 PNe) in M33. Among them, 8 PNe and 55 H\ii\ regions in M33 are newly discovered. We obtained the following O abundance gradients: $-$0.199$_{-0.030}^{+0.030}$ dex $R_{25}^{-1}$ (based on 95 H\ii\ regions), $-$0.124$_{-0.036}^{+0.036}$ dex $R_{25}^{-1}$ (based on 93 H\ii\ regions), and $-$0.207$_{-0.174}^{+0.160}$ dex $R_{25}^{-1}$ (based on 21 H\ii\ region), utilizing abundances from N2 at O3N2 diagnostics and the $T_{\rm e}$-sensitive method, respectively. The He, N, Ne, S, and Ar gradients resulted in slopes of $-$0.179$_{-0.146}^{+0.145}$, $-$0.431$_{-0.281}^{+0.282}$, $-$0.171$_{-0.239}^{+0.234}$, $-$0.417$_{-0.182}^{+0.174}$, $-$0.340$_{-0.157}^{+0.156}$, respectively, utilizing abundances from the $T_{\rm e}$-sensitive method. Our results confirm the existence of negative axisymmetric global metallicity distribution that is assumed in the literature. We noticed one new WC star candidate and one transition WR WN/C candidate. The grand-design pattern of spiral structure of M33 is presented.

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Contribution of Gaia Sausage to the Galactic Stellar Halo Revealed by K Giants and Blue Horizontal Branch Stars from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and Gaia

We explore the contribution of the Gaia-Sausage to the stellar halo of the Milky Way by making use of a Gaussian Mixture model (GMM) and applying it to halo star samples of LAMOST K giants, SEGUE K giants, and SDSS blue horizontal branch stars. The GMM divides the stellar halo into two parts, of which one represents a more metal-rich and highly radially biased component associated with an ancient, head-on collision referred to as the Gaia-Sausage, and the other one is a more metal-poor and isotropic halo. A symmetric bimodal Gaussian is used to describe the distribution of spherical velocity of the Gaia-Sausage, and we find that the mean absolute radial velocity of the two lobes decreases with Galactocentric radius. We find that the Gaia-Sausage contributes about $41\%-74\%$ of the inner (Galactocentric radius $r_\mathrm{gc} < 30$ kpc) stellar halo. The fraction of stars of the Gaia-Sausage starts to decline beyond $r_\mathrm{gc} \sim$ $25-30$ kpc, and the outer halo is found to be significantly less influenced by the Gaia-Sausage than the inner halo. After the removal of halo substructures found by integrals of motion, the contribution of the \textit{Gaia}-Sausage falls slightly within $r_\mathrm{gc} \sim$ 25 kpc, but is still as high as $30\%-63\%$. Finally, we select several possible Sausage-related substructures consisting of stars on highly eccentric orbits. The GMM/Sausage component agrees well with the selected substructure stars in their chemodynamical properties, which increases our confidence in the reliability of the GMM fits.

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Interstellar Extinction and Elemental Abundances: Individual Sight Lines

While it is well recognized that both the Galactic interstellar extinction curves and the gas-phase abundances of dust-forming elements exhibit considerable variations from one sight line to another, as yet most of the dust extinction modeling efforts have been directed to the Galactic average extinction curve, which is obtained by averaging over many clouds of different gas and dust properties. Therefore, any details concerning the relationship between the dust properties and the interstellar environments are lost. Here we utilize the wealth of extinction and elemental abundance data obtained by space telescopes and explore the dust properties of a large number of individual sight lines. We model the observed extinction curve of each sight line and derive the abundances of the major dust-forming elements (i.e., C, O, Si, Mg and Fe) required to be tied up in dust (i.e., dust depletion). We then confront the derived dust depletions with the observed gas-phase abundances of these elements and investigate the environmental effects on the dust properties and elemental depletions. It is found that for the majority of the sight lines the interstellar oxygen atoms are fully accommodated by gas and dust and therefore there does not appear to be a "missing oxygen" problem. For those sight lines with an extinction-to-hydrogen column density $A_V/N_H$ $>$ 4.8$\times$10$^{-22}$ mag cm$^2$/H there are shortages of C, Si, Mg and Fe elements for making dust to account for the observed extinction, even if the interstellar C/H, Si/H, Mg/H and Fe/H abundances are assumed to be proto-solar abundances augmented by Galactic chemical evolution.

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Extended Tidal Tails of IC 4756 detected by {\it Gaia} EDR3

We report the discovery of emerged tidal tails around open cluster IC 4756 ($\sim$ 1 Gyr) based on 644 members identified from {\it Gaia} EDR3. Three-dimensional spatial positions, two-dimensional tangential velocities $\left( x, y, z, κ\cdot μ_α^{*}/\varpi, κ\cdot μ_δ/\varpi \right)$ are utilized to determine the co-moving member candidates of IC 4756. Using a Bayesian method, we correct the distance for each cluster member. Two tidal tails extend up to 180 pc and display a S-shape in $X^{\prime}Y^{\prime}$ space (Cartesian coordinates focused on cluster center). A clean sequence of our members in Color-Absolute-Magnitude Diagram (CAMD) indicates the coeval population and matches perfectly with the PARSEC isochrone with age from Bossini et al. (2019). Mass segregation is detected in this cluster as well. Finally, we derive the tidal radius and core radius of IC 4756 about $12.13$ pc and $4.33 \pm 0.75$ pc, respectively.

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Tracing the Origin of Moving Groups. III. Detecting Moving Groups in The LAMOST DR7

We revisit the moving groups (MGs) in the solar neighborhood with a sample of 91969 nearby stars constructed from LAMOST DR7. Using the wavelet technique and Monte Carlo simulations, five MGs together with a new candidate located at $V \simeq$ -130 km s$^{-1}$ are detected simultaneously in $V-\sqrt{U^2+2V^2}$ space. Taking into account the other known MGs, we conclude that MGs in the Galactic disk are spaced by approximately 15 $\sim$ 25 km s$^{-1}$ along $V$ velocity. The origin of detected MGs is analysed through the distributions of [Fe/H]$-$[Mg/Fe] and ages. Our results support attributing the origin to the continuous resonant mechanisms probably induced by the bar or spiral arms of the Milky Way.

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Lithium Evolution of Giant Stars Observed by LAMOST and Kepler

Mapping lithium evolution for evolved stars will provide restrictions and constraints on the fundamental stellar interior physical processes, which further shed light on our understanding of the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Based on a sample of 1,848 giants with known evolutionary phases and lithium abundances from the LAMOST-\kepler{} and LAMOST-\emph{K}2 fields, we construct mass-radius diagrams to characterize the evolutionary features of lithium. The stars at red giant branch (RGB) phase show natural depletion along with their stellar evolution, particularly, there is no obvious crowd stars with anomalously high Li abundances near the bump. Most of the low-mass stars reaching their zero-age sequence of core-helium-burning (ZAHeB) have Li abundances around $\sim1.0$\,dex, which show an increase of Li abundance by $\sim0.6$\,dex compared to the stars above the bump of RGB. This suggests the helium flash can be responsible for moderate Li production. While for super Li-rich stars, some special mechanisms should be considered during helium flash. Other scenarios, such as merger, could also be interpretations given the Li-rich stars can be found at anytime during the steady state phase of core He-burning. During the core He-burning (HeB) phase, there is no indication of obvious lithium depletion.

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Spectroscopic evidence for a large spot on the dimming Betelgeuse

During October 2019 and March 2020, the luminous red supergiant Betelgeuse demonstrated an unusually deep minimum of its brightness. It became fainter by more than one magnitude and this is the most significant dimming observed in the recent decades. While the reason for the dimming is debated, pre-phase of supernova explosion, obscuring dust, or changes in the photosphere of the star were suggested scenarios. Here, we present spectroscopic studies of Betelgeuse using high-resolution and high signal-to- noise ratio near-infrared spectra obtained at Weihai Observatory on four epochs in 2020 covering the phases of during and after dimming. We show that the dimming episode is caused by the dropping of its effective temperature by at least 170 K on 2020 January 31, that can be attributed to the emergence of a large dark spot on the surface of the star.

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Metal-poor Stars Observed with the Automated Planet Finder Telescope. III. CEMP-no Stars are the Descendant of Population III Stars

In this study, we report a probabilistic insight into the stellar mass and supernovae (SNe) explosion energy of the possible progenitors of five CEMP-no stars. This was done by a direct comparison between the abundance ratios [X/Fe] of the light-elements and the predicted nucleosynthetic yields of SN of high-mass metal-free stars. This comparison suggests possible progenitors with stellar mass range of 11 - 22\,M$_{\odot}$ and explosion energies of $0.3 - 1.8 \times 10^{51}$\,erg. The coupling of the chemical abundances with kinematics derived from $Gaia$ DR2 suggests that our sample do not enter the outer-halo region. In addition, we suggest that these CEMP-no stars are not $Gaia$-Sausage nor $Gaia$-Sequoia remnant stars, but another accretion event might be responsible for the contribution of these stars to the Galactic Halo of the Milky-Way.

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Radial Migration from Metallicity Gradient of Open Clusters and Outliers

Radial migration is an important process in the evolution of the Galactic disk. The metallicity gradient of open clusters and its outliers provide an effective way to probe for this process. In this work, we compile metallicity, age, and kinematic parameters for 225 open clusters and carry out a quantitative analysis of radial migration via the calculated migration distances. Based on clusters with age $< 0.5$ Gyr, we obtain the present-day metallicity gradient of $-0.074 \pm 0.007$ dex/kpc. Along this gradient distributes three sequences, and clusters in the upper, the middle, and the lower groups are found to be old outward-migrators, in-situ clusters, and inward-migrators, respectively. The migration distance increases with age, but its most effective time is probably less than 3 Gyr. The metallicity gradient breaks out at $R_g$ (guiding center radius) $\sim11.5$ kpc, which is caused by the lack of young open clusters in the outer disk and the presence of old outward-migrators in the upper sequence. It shows that this boundary is related to the different effects of radial migration between the inner and outer disks. We also found many special open clusters in and near the outer disk of $R > 11$ kpc and a steeper metallicity gradient from the inner disk of $R_g < 7$ kpc, which tells a complicated evolution history of the Galactic disk by different effects of stellar radial migration.

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