arXiv subjects

Martin C. Smith

Publications and source records attributed to Martin C. Smith.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Searching Extra-tidal Features around the Globular Cluster Whiting 1

Whiting 1 is a faint and young globular cluster in the halo of the Milky Way, and was suggested to have originated in the Sagittarius spherical dwarf galaxy (Sgr dSph). In this paper, we use the deep DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys to explore tentative spatial connection between Whiting 1 and the Sgr dSph. We redetermine the fundamental parameters of Whiting 1 and use the best-fitting isochrone (age $τ$=6.5 Gyr, metalicity Z=0.005 and $\rm d_{\odot}$=26.9 kpc) to construct a theoretical matched filter for the extra-tidal features searching. Without any smooth technique to the matched filter density map, we detect a round-shape feature with possible leading and trailing tails on either side of the cluster. This raw image is not totally new compared to old discoveries, but confirms that no more large-scale features can be detected under a depth of r<=22.5 mag. In our results, the whole feature stretches 0.1-0.2 degree along the orbit of Whiting 1, which gives a much larger area than the cluster core. The tails on both sides of the cluster align along the orbital direction of the Sgr dSph as well as the cluster itself, which implies that these debris are probably stripped remnants of Whiting 1 by the Milky Way.

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arXiv2021

A LAMOST BHB Catalog and Kinematics Therein I: Catalog and Halo Properties

We collect a sample of stars observed both in LAMOST and Gaia which have colors implying a temperature hotter than 7000 K. We train a machine learning algorithm on LAMOST spectroscopic data which has been tagged with stellar classifications and metallicities, and use this machine to construct a catalog of Blue Horizontal Branch stars (BHBs) with metallicity information. Another machine is trained using Gaia parallaxes to predict absolute magnitudes for these stars. The final catalog of 13,693 BHBs is thought to be about 86\% pure, with $σ_{[Fe/H]}\sim$0.35 dex and $σ_{G}\sim$0.31 mag. These values are confirmed via comparison to globular clusters, although a covariance error seems to affect our magnitude and abundance estimates. We analyze a subset of this catalog in the Galactic Halo. We find that BHB populations in the outer halo appear redder, which could imply a younger population, and that the metallicity gradient is relatively flat around [Fe/H] = -1.9 dex over our sample footprint. We find that our metal rich BHB stars are on more radial velocity dispersion dominated orbits ($β\sim 0.70$) at all radii than our metal poor BHB stars ($β\sim 0.62$).

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arXiv2020

The Splash without a merger

The Milky Way's progenitor experienced several merger events which left their imprints on the stellar halo, including the Gaia-Sausage/Enceladus. Recently, it has been proposed that this event perturbed the proto-disk and gave rise to a metal rich ([Fe/H] $>-1$) low angular momentum ($v_ϕ < 100$ km/s) stellar population. These stars have dynamical and chemical properties different from the accreted stellar halo, but are continuous with the canonical thick disk. In this letter, we use a hydrodynamical simulation of an isolated galaxy which develops clumps that produce a bimodal thin$+$thick disk chemistry to explore whether it forms such a population. We demonstrate clump scattering forms a metal-rich, low angular momentum population, without the need for a major merger. We show that, in the simulation, these stars have chemistry, kinematics and density distribution in good agreement with those in the Milky Way.

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arXiv2020

The tale of the tail -- disentangling the high transverse velocity stars in Gaia DR2

Although the stellar halo accounts for just ~1% of the total stellar mass of the Milky Way, the kinematics of halo stars encode valuable information about the origins and evolution of our Galaxy. It has been shown that the high transverse velocity stars in Gaia DR2 reveal a double sequence in the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram, indicating a bifurcation in the local stellar halo within 1 kpc. We fit these stars by updating the popular Besançon/Galaxia model, incorporating the latest observational results for the stellar halo and an improved kinematic description for the thick-disk from Schönrich & Binney (2012). We are able to obtain a good match to the Gaia data and provide new constraints on the properties of the Galactic disc and stellar halo. In particular, we show that the kinematically defined thick disc contribution to this high velocity tail is ~13%. We look in greater detail using chemistry from LAMOST DR5, identifying a population of retrograde stars with thick-disc chemistry. Our thick disc kinematic model cannot account for this population and so we conclude there is likely to be a contribution from heated or accreted stars in the Solar Neighbourhood. We also investigate proposed dynamical substructures in this sample, concluding that they are probably due to resonant orbits rather than accreted populations. Finally we provide new insights on the nature of the two sequences and their relation with past accretion events and the primordial Galactic disc.

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arXiv2019

Young stars as tracers of a barred-spiral Milky Way

Identifying the structure of our Galaxy has always been fraught with difficulties, and while modern surveys continue to make progress building a map of the Milky Way, there is still much to understand. The arm and bar features are important drivers in shaping the interstellar medium, but their exact nature and influence still require attention. We present results of smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations of gas in the Milky Way including star formation, stellar feedback, and ISM cooling, when exposed to different arm and bar features, with the aim of better understanding how well newly formed stars trace out the underlying structure of the Galaxy. The bar is given a faster pattern speed than the arms, resulting in a complex, time-dependent morphology and star formation. Inter-arm branches and spurs are easily influenced by the bar, especially in the two-armed spiral models where there is a wide region of resonance overlap in the disc. As the bar over-takes the spiral arms it induces small boosts in star formation and enhances spiral features, which occur at regularly spaced beat-like intervals. The locations of star formation events are similar to those seen in observational data, and do not show a perfect 1:1 correspondence with the underlying spiral potential, though arm tangencies are generally well traced by young stars. Stellar velocity fields from the newly formed stars are compared to data from Gaia DR2, showing that the spiral and bar features can reproduce many of the non-axisymmetric features seen in the data. A simple analytical model is used to show many of these feature are a natural response of gas to rigidly rotating spiral and bar potentials.

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arXiv2019

The Biggest Splash

Using a large sample of bright nearby stars with accurate Gaia Data Release 2 astrometry and auxiliary spectroscopy we map out the properties of the principle Galactic components such as the "thin" and "thick" discs and the halo. We show that in the Solar neighborhood, there exists a large population of metal-rich ([Fe/H]>-0.7) stars on highly eccentric orbits. By studying the evolution of elemental abundances, kinematics and stellar ages in the plane of azimuthal velocity v_phi and metallicity [Fe/H], we demonstrate that this metal-rich halo-like component, which we dub the Splash, is linked to the alpha-rich (or "thick") disc. Splash stars have little to no angular momentum and many are on retrograde orbits. They are predominantly old, but not as old as the stars deposited into the Milky Way in the last major merger. We argue, in agreement with several recent studies, that the Splash stars may have been born in the Milky Way's proto-disc prior to the massive ancient accretion event which drastically altered their orbits. We can not, however, rule out other (alternative) formation channels. Taking advantage of the causal connection between the merger and the Splash, we put constraints of the epoch of the last massive accretion event to have finished 9.5 Gyr ago. The link between the local metal-rich and metal-poor retrograde stars is confirmed using a large suite of cutting-edge numerical simulations of the Milky Way's formation.

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arXiv2019

Chemo-dynamical properties of the Anticenter Stream: a surviving disc fossil from a past satellite interaction

Using Gaia DR2, we trace the Anticenter Stream (ACS) in various stellar populations across the sky and find that it is kinematically and spatially decoupled from the Monoceros Ring. Using stars from {\sc lamost} and {\sc segue}, we show that the ACS is systematically more metal-poor than Monoceros by $0.1$ dex with indications of a narrower metallicity spread. Furthermore, the ACS is predominantly populated of old stars ($\sim 10\,\rm{Gyr}$), whereas Monoceros has a pronounced tail of younger stars ($6-10\, \rm{Gyr}$) as revealed by their cumulative age distributions. Put togehter, all of this evidence support predictions from simulations of the interaction of the Sagittarius dwarf with the Milky Way, which argue that the Anticenter Stream (ACS) is the remains of a tidal tail of the Galaxy excited during Sgr's first pericentric passage after it crossed the virial radius, whereas Monoceros consists of the composite stellar populations excited during the more extended phases of the interaction. We suggest that the ACS can be used to constrain the Galactic potential, particularly its flattening, setting strong limits on the existence of a dark disc. Importantly, the ACS can be viewed as a stand-alone fossil of the chemical enrichment history of the Galactic disc.

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arXiv2018

The Lives of Stars: Insights From the TGAS-RAVE-LAMOST Dataset

In this paper we investigate how the chemical and kinematic properties of stars vary as a function of age. Using data from a variety of photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic surveys, we calculate the ages, phase space information and orbits for $\sim$125,000 stars covering a wide range of stellar parameters. We find indications that the inner regions of the disk reached high levels of enrichment early, while the outer regions were more substantially enriched in intermediate and recent epochs. We consider these enrichment histories through comparison of the ages of stars, their metallicities, and kinematic properties, such as their angular momentum in the solar neighborhood (which is a proxy for orbital radius). We calculate rates at which the velocity dispersions evolve, investigate the Oort constants for different aged populations (finding a slightly negative $\partial V_{C} / \partial R$ and $\partial V_{R} / \partial R$ for all ages, being most negative for the oldest stars), as well as examine the behavior of the velocity vertex deviation angle as a function of age (which we find to fall from $\sim$15 degrees for the 2 Gyr aged population to $\sim$6 degrees at around 6.5 Gyr of age, after which it remains unchanged). We find evidence for stellar churning, and find that the churned stars have a slightly younger age distribution than the rest of the data.

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arXiv2017

The velocity ellipsoid in the Galactic disc using Gaia DR1

The stellar velocity ellipsoid of the solar neighbour is re-examined using intermediate-old mono-abundances stellar groups with high quality chemistry data together with parallaxes and proper motions from Gaia DR1. We find the average velocity dispersion values for the three space velocity components for the thin and thick disc of (σ_{U},σ_{V},σ_{W})_{thin} = (33 \pm 4, 28 \pm 2, 23 \pm 2) and (σ_{U},σ_{V},σ_{W})_{thick} = (57 \pm 6, 38 \pm 5, 37 \pm 4) km s^{-1}, respectively. The mean values of the ratio between the semi-axes of the velocity ellipsoid for the thin disc are found to be, σ_{V}/σ_{U} = 0.70 \pm 0.13 and σ_{W}/σ_{U} is 0.64 \pm 0.08, while for the thick disc σ_{V}/σ_{U} = 0.67 \pm 0.11 and σ_{W}/σ_{U} is 0.66 \pm 0.11. Inputting these dispersions into the linear Strömberg relation for the thin disc groups, we find the Sun's velocity with respect to the LSR in Galactic rotation to be V_{\sun} = 13.9 \pm 3.4 km s^{-1}. A relation is found between the vertex deviation and the chemical abundances for the thin disc, ranging from -5 to +40^{\circ} as iron-abundance increases. For the thick disc we find a vertex deviation of l_{uv} \sim -15^{\circ}. The tilt angle (l_{uw}) in the U-W plane for the thin disc groups ranges from -10 to +15^\circ, but there is no evident relation between l_{uw} and the mean abundances. However we find a weak relation for l_{uw} as a function of iron abundances and α-elements for most of the groups in the thick disc, where the tilt angle decreases from -5 to -20^\circ when [Fe/H] decreases and [α/Fe] increases. The velocity anisotropy parameter is independent of the chemical group abundances and its value is nearly constant for both discs (β\sim 0.5), suggesting that the combined disc is dynamically relaxed.

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arXiv2016

The Eruption of the Candidate Young Star ASASSN-15qi

Outbursts on young stars are usually interpreted as accretion bursts caused by instabilities in the disk or the star-disk connection. However, some protostellar outbursts may not fit into this framework. In this paper, we analyze optical and near-infrared spectra and photometry to characterize the 2015 outburst of the probable young star ASASSN-15qi. The $\sim 3.5$ mag brightening in the $V$ band was sudden, with an unresolved rise time of less than one day. The outburst decayed exponentially by 1 mag for 6 days and then gradually back to the pre-outburst level after 200 days. The outburst is dominated by emission from $\sim10,000$ K gas. An explosive release of energy accelerated matter from the star in all directions, seen in a spectacular cool, spherical wind with a maximum velocity of 1000 km/s. The wind and hot gas both disappeared as the outburst faded and the source returned to its quiescent F-star spectrum. Nebulosity near the star brightened with a delay of 10-20 days. Fluorescent excitation of H$_2$ is detected in emission from vibrational levels as high as $v=11$, also with a possible time delay in flux increase. The mid-infrared spectral energy distribution does not indicate the presence of warm dust emission, although the optical photospheric absorption and CO overtone emission could be related to a gaseous disk. Archival photometry reveals a prior outburst in 1976. Although we speculate about possible causes for this outburst, none of the explanations are compelling.

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arXiv2016

Red Runaways II: Low mass Hills stars in SDSS Stripe 82

Stars ejected from the Galactic centre can be used to place important constraints on the Milky Way potential. Since existing hypervelocity stars are too distant to accurately determine orbits, we have conducted a search for nearby candidates using full three-dimensional velocities. Since the efficacy of such studies are often hampered by deficiencies in proper motion catalogs, we have chosen to utilize the reliable, high-precision SDSS Stripe 82 proper motion catalog. Although we do not find any candidates which have velocities in excess of the escape speed, we identify 226 stars on orbits that are consistent with Galactic centre ejection. This number is significantly larger than what we would expect for halo stars on radial orbits and cannot be explained by disk or bulge contamination. If we restrict ourselves to metal-rich stars, we find 29 candidates with [Fe/H] > -0.8 dex and 10 with [Fe/H] > -0.6 dex. Their metallicities are more consistent with what we expect for bulge ejecta, and so we believe these candidates are especially deserving of further study. We have supplemented this sample using our own radial velocities, developing an algorithm to use proper motions for optimizing candidate selection. This technique provides considerable improvement on the blind spectroscopic sample of SDSS, being able to identify candidates with an efficiency around 20 times better than a blind search.

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arXiv2016

Selecting M-giants with infra-red photometry: Distances, metallicities and the Sagittarius stream

Using a spectroscopically confirmed sample of M-giants, M-dwarfs and quasars from the LAMOST survey, we assess how well WISE $\&$ 2MASS color-cuts can be used to select M-giant stars. The WISE bands are very efficient at separating M-giants from M-dwarfs and we present a simple classification that can produce a clean and relatively complete sample of M-giants. We derive a new photometric relation to estimate the metallicity for M-giants, calibrated using data from the APOGEE survey. We find a strong correlation between the $(W1-W2)$ color and $\rm [M/H]$, where almost all of the scatter is due to photometric uncertainties. We show that previous photometric distance relations, which are mostly based on stellar models, may be biased and devise a new empirical distance relation, investigating trends with metallicity and star formation history. Given these relations, we investigate the properties of M-giants in the Sagittarius stream. The offset in the orbital plane between the leading and trailing tails is reproduced and, by identifying distant M-giants in the direction of the Galactic anti-center, we confirm that the previously detected debris in the outer halo is the apocenter of the trailing tail. We also find tentative evidence supporting an existing overdensity near the leading tail in the Northern Galactic hemisphere, possibly an extension to the trailing tail (so-called Branch C). We have measured the metallicity distribution along the stream, finding a clear metallicity offset between the leading and trailing tails, in agreement with models for the stream formation. We include an online table of M-giants to facilitate further studies.

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arXiv2016

Kinematically Detected Halo Streams

Clues to the origins and evolution of our Galaxy can be found in the kinematics of stars around us. Remnants of accreted satellite galaxies produce over- densities in velocity-space, which can remain coherent for much longer than spatial over-densities. This chapter reviews a number of studies that have hunted for these accretion relics, both in the nearby solar-neighborhood and the more-distant stellar halo. Many observational surveys have driven this field forwards, from early work with the Hipparcos mission, to contemporary surveys like RAVE & SDSS. This active field continues to flourish, providing many new discoveries, and will be revolutionised as the Gaia mission delivers precise proper motions for a billion stars in our Galaxy.

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arXiv2015

LAMOST 1: A Disrupted Satellite in the Constellation Draco

Using LAMOST spectroscopic data, we find a strong signal of a comoving group of stars in the constellation of Draco. The group, observed near the apocenter of its orbit, is 2.6 kpc from the Sun with a metallicity of -0.64 dex. The system is observed as a streaming population of unknown provenance with mass of about 2.1E4 solar masses and an absolute V band magnitude of about -3.6. Its high metallicity, diffuse physical structure, and eccentric orbit may indicate that the progenitor satellite was a globular cluster rather than a dwarf galaxy or an open cluster.

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arXiv2015

Resonant Orbits and the High Velocity Peaks Towards the Bulge

We extract the resonant orbits from an N-body bar that is a good representation of the Milky Way, using the method recently introduced by Molloy et al. (2015). By decomposing the bar into its constituent orbit families, we show that they are intimately connected to the boxy-peanut shape of the density. We highlight the imprint due solely to resonant orbits on the kinematic landscape towards the Galactic centre. The resonant orbits are shown to have distinct kinematic features and may be used to explain the cold velocity peak seen in the APOGEE commissioning data (Nidever at al., 2012). We show that high velocity peaks are a natural consequence of the motions of stars in the 2:1 orbit family and that stars on other higher order resonances can contribute to the peaks. The locations of the peaks vary with bar angle and, with the tacit assumption that the observed peaks are due to the 2:1 family, we find that the locations of the high velocity peaks correspond to bar angles in the range 10 < theta_bar < 25 (deg). However, some important questions about the nature of the peaks remain, such as their apparent absence in other surveys of the Bulge and the deviations from symmetry between equivalent fields in the north and south. We show that the absence of a peak in surveys at higher latitudes is likely due to the combination of a less prominent peak and a lower number density of bar supporting orbits at these latitudes.

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arXiv2015

Gravitational Microlensing by Neutron Stars and Radio Pulsars: Event Rates, Timescale Distributions, and Mass Measurements

We investigate properties of Galactic microlensing events in which a stellar object is lensed by a neutron star. For an all-sky photometric microlensing survey, we determine the number of lensing events caused by $\sim10^{5}$ potentially-observable radio pulsars to be $\sim0.2\ \rm{yr^{-1}}$ for $10^{10}$ background stellar sources. We expect a few detectable events per year for the same number of background sources from an astrometric microlensing survey. We show that such a study could lead to precise measurements of radio pulsar masses. For instance, if a pulsar distance could be constrained through radio observations, then its mass would be determined with a precision of $\sim10\%$. We also investigate the time-scale distributions for neutron star events, finding that they are much shorter than had been previously thought. For photometric events towards the Galactic centre that last $\sim15$ days, around $7\%$ will have a neutron star lens. This fraction drops rapidly for longer time-scales. Away from the bulge region we find that neutron stars will contribute $\sim40\%$ of the events that last less than $\sim10$ days. These results are in contrast to earlier work which found that the maximum fraction of neutron star events would occur on time-scales of hundreds of days.

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arXiv2015

Red Runaways: Hypervelocity Stars, Hills Ejecta and Other Outliers in the F-M Star Regime

In this paper we analyze a sample of metal-rich (>-0.8 dex) main sequence stars in the extended solar neighborhood, investigating kinematic outliers from the background population. The data, which are taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, are kinematically profiled as a function of distance from the Galactic plane using full six dimensional phase space information. Each star is examined in the context of these kinematic profiles and likelihoods are assigned to quantify whether a star matches the underlying profile. Since some of these stars are likely to have been ejected from the disc, we trace back their orbits in order to determine potential ejection radii. We find that objects with low probability (i.e. `outliers') are typically more metal poor, faster and, most importantly, have a tendency to originate from the inner Galaxy compared to the underlying population. We also compose a sample of stars with velocities exceeding the local escape velocity. Although we do not discount that our sample could be contaminated by objects with spurious proper motions, a number of stars appear to have been ejected from the disc with exceptionally high velocities. Some of these are consistent with being ejected from the spiral arms and hence are a rich resource for further study. Finally we look at objects whose orbits are consistent with them being ejected at high speeds from the Galactic center. Of these objects we find that one, J135855.65+552538.19, is inconsistent with halo, bulge and disk kinematics and could plausibly have been ejected from the Galactic nucleus via a Hills mechanism.

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arXiv2015

Estimation of distances to stars with stellar parameters from LAMOST

We present a method to estimate distances to stars with spectroscopically derived stellar parameters. The technique is a Bayesian approach with likelihood estimated via comparison of measured parameters to a grid of stellar isochrones, and returns a posterior probability density function for each star's absolute magnitude. This technique is tailored specifically to data from the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) survey. Because LAMOST obtains roughly 3000 stellar spectra simultaneously within each ~5-degree diameter "plate" that is observed, we can use the stellar parameters of the observed stars to account for the stellar luminosity function and target selection effects. This removes biasing assumptions about the underlying populations, both due to predictions of the luminosity function from stellar evolution modeling, and from Galactic models of stellar populations along each line of sight. Using calibration data of stars with known distances and stellar parameters, we show that our method recovers distances for most stars within ~20%, but with some systematic overestimation of distances to halo giants. We apply our code to the LAMOST database, and show that the current precision of LAMOST stellar parameters permits measurements of distances with ~40% error bars. This precision should improve as the LAMOST data pipelines continue to be refined.

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