arXiv subjects

Mario Ortigoza-Urdaneta

Publications and source records attributed to Mario Ortigoza-Urdaneta.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Galactic ArchaeoLogIcaL ExcavatiOns (GALILEO) II. t-SNE Portrait of Local Fossil Relics and Structures

Based on high-quality APOGEE DR17 and Gaia DR3 data for 1,742 red giants stars within 5 kpc of the Sun and not rotating with the Galactic disc ($V_ϕ<$ 100 km s$^{-1}$), we use the nonlinear technique of unsupervised analysis t-SNE to detect coherent structures in the space of ten chemical-abundance ratios: [Fe/H], [O/Fe], [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], [C/Fe], [N/Fe], [Al/Fe], [Mn/Fe], and [Ni/Fe]. Additionally, we obtain orbital parameters for each star using the non-axisymmetric gravitational potential {\tt GravPot16}. Seven structures are detected, including the Splash, Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus (GSE), the high-$α$ heated-disc population, N-C-O peculiar stars, and inner disk-like stars, plus two other groups that did not match anything previously reported in the literature, here named Galileo 5 and Galileo 6 (G5 and G6). These two groups overlap with Splash in [Fe/H], G5 being lower metallicity than G6, both between GSE and Splash in the [Mg/Mn] versus [Al/Fe] plane, G5 in the $α$-rich in-situ locus, and G6 on the border of the $α$-poor in-situ one; nonetheless their low [Ni/Fe] hints to a possible ex-situ origin. Their orbital energy distributions are between the Splash and GSE, with G5 being slightly more energetic than G6. We verified the robustness of all the obtained groups by exploring a large range of t-SNE parameters, applying it to various subsets of data, and also measuring the effect of abundance errors through Monte Carlo tests.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

APOGEE-2 Discovery of a Large Population of Relatively High-Metallicity Globular Cluster Debris

We report the discovery of a new, chemically distinct population of relatively high-metallicity ([Fe/H] $> -0.7$) red giant stars with super-solar [N/Fe] ($\gtrsim +0.75$) identified within the bulge, disk, and halo of the Milky Way. This sample of stars was observed during the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2); the spectra of these stars are part of the seventeenth Data Release (DR 17) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We hypothesize that this newly identified population was formed in a variety of progenitors, and are likely made up of either fully or partially destroyed metal-rich globular clusters, which we refer to as Globular Cluster Debris (GCD), identified by their unusual photospheric nitrogen abundances. It is likely that some of the GCD stars were probable members of the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage accretion event, along with clusters formed in situ.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Dynamical Orbital classification of selected N-rich stars with \textit{Gaia} DR2 astrometry

We have used the galaxy modeling algorithm \texttt{GravPot16}, to explore the more probable orbital elements of a sample of 64 selected N-rich stars across the Milky Way. Using the newly measured proper motions from \texttt{Gaia} DR2 with existing line-of-sight velocities from APOGEE-2 survey and spectrophotometric distance estimations from the \texttt{StarHorse}. We adopted a set of high-resolution particle simulations evolved in the same steady-state Galactic potential model with a bar, in order to identify the groups of N-rich stars that have a high probability of belonging to the bulge/bar, disk, and stellar halo component. We find that the vast majority of the N-rich stars show typically maximum height from the Galactic plane below 3 kpc, and develop rather eccentric orbits (\textit{e}$>$0.5), which means these stars appear to have bulge/bar-like and/or halo-like orbits. We also show that $\sim66$\% of the selected N-rich stars currently lives in the inner Galaxy inside the corotation radius (C.R.), whilst $\sim14$\% of the N-rich star resides in halo-like orbits. Among the N-rich in the inner Galaxy, $\sim27\%$ of them share orbital properties in the boundary between bulge/bar and disk, depending on the bar pattern speeds. Our dynamical analysis also indicates that some of the N-rich are likely halo interlopers and therefore suggest that halo contamination is not insignificant within the bulge area.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Discovery of a nitrogen-enhanced mildly metal-poor binary system: Possible evidence for pollution from an extinct AGB Star

We report the serendipitous discovery of a nitrogen-rich, mildly metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-1.08) giant star in a single-lined spectroscopic binary system found in the SDSS-IV Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2) survey, Data Release 14 (DR14). Previous work has assumed that the two percent of halo giants with unusual elemental abundances have been evaporated from globular clusters, but other origins for their abundance signatures, including binary mass transfer, must also be explored. We present the results of an abundance re-analysis of the APOGEE-2 high-resolution near-infrared spectrum of 2M12451043+1217401 with the Brussels Automatic Stellar Parameter (BACCHUS) automated spectral analysis code, and re-derive manually the main element families, namely the light elements (C, N), elements (O, Mg, Si), iron-peak element (Fe), \textit{s}-process element (Ce), and the light odd-Z element (Al). Our analysis confirm the N-rich nature of 2M12451043+1217401, which has a [N/Fe] ratio of $+0.69$, and shows that the abundances of C and Al are slightly discrepant from that of a typical mildly metal-poor RGB star, but exhibit Mg, Si, O and \textit{s}-process abundances (Ce) of typical field stars. We also detect a particularly large variability in its radial velocity over the period of the APOGEE-2 observations, and the most likely orbit fit to the radial velocity data has a period of $730.89\pm106.86$ days, a velocity semi-amplitude of $9.92 \pm 0.14$ km s$^{-1}$, and an eccentricity of $\sim 0.1276 \pm0.1174$, which support the hypothesis of a binary companion, and that has probably been polluted by a now-extinct AGB star.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

The metal-rich halo component extended in z: a characterization with Gaia DR2 and APOGEE

We report an analysis of the metal-rich tail ([Fe/H] $> -0.75$) of halo stars located at distances from the Galactic plane $z$ up to $|z| \sim 10$ kpc, observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). We examine the chemistry, kinematics, and dynamics of this metal-rich halo sample using chemical abundances and radial velocities provided by the fourteenth APOGEE data release (DR14) and proper motions from the second Gaia data release (DR2). The analysis reveals three chemically different stellar populations in the [Mg/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] space -- the two distinct halo populations already reported in the literature, and a third group with intermediate [Mg/Fe] $\sim$+0.1. We derive the $U$, $V$ and $W$ velocity components with respect to the Local Standard of Rest, as well as orbits for the three stellar groups, and find that they differ also in their kinematical and dynamical properties. The high-[Mg/Fe] population exhibits a mean prograde rotation, as well as orbits that are more bound and closer to the plane, whereas the low-[Mg/Fe] population has $ $ closer to 0, and stars that move in less-bound orbits reaching larger distances from the centre and the Galactic plane. The intermediate-Mg stars exhibit different orbital characteristics, moving with a strong prograde rotation and low excentricity, but in less-bound orbits. This stellar population resembles the two stellar overdensities lying about $|z| \sim 5$ kpc recently reported in the literature, for which a disc origin has been claimed.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Chemodynamics of newly identified giants with globular cluster like abundance patterns in the bulge, disk, and halo of the Milky Way

The latest edition of the APOGEE-2/DR14 survey catalogue and the first \texttt{Payne} data release of APOGEE abundance determinations by Ting et al. are examined. We identify 31 previously unremarked metal-poor giant stars with anomalously high levels of nitrogen in the chemical space defined by [Fe/H] and [N/Fe]. The APOGEE chemical abundance patterns of such objects revealed that these are chemically distinct from the Milky Way (MW) in most chemical elements. We have found all these objects have a [N/Fe]$>+0.5$, and are thus identified here as nitrogen-rich stars. An orbital analysis of these objects revealed that a handful of them shares the orbital properties of the bar/bulge, and possibly linked to tidal debris of surviving globular clusters trapped into the bar component. 3 of the 31 stars are actually halo interlopers into the bulge area, which suggests that halo contamination is not insignificant when studying N-rich stars found in the inner Galaxy, whereas the rest of the N-rich stars share orbital properties with the halo population. Most of the newly identified population exhibit chemistry similar to the so-called \textit{second-generation} globular cluster stars (enriched in aluminum, [Al/Fe]$>+0.5$), whereas a handful of them exhibit lower abundances of aluminum, [Al/Fe]$<+0.5$, which are thought to be chemically associated with the \textit{first-generation} of stars, as seen in globular clusters, or compatible with origin from a tidally disrupted dwarf galaxy.

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