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Paola Di Matteo

Publications and source records attributed to Paola Di Matteo.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2025

The First Chemical Census the Milky Way's Nuclear Star Cluster

An important step in understanding the formation and evolution of the Nuclear Star Cluster (NSC) is to investigate its chemistry and chemical evolution. Additionally, exploring the relationship of the NSC to the other structures in the Galactic Center and the Milky Way disks is of great interest. Extreme optical extinction has previously prevented optical studies, but near-IR high-resolution spectroscopy is now possible. Here, we present a detailed chemical abundance analysis of 19 elements - more than four times as many as previously published - for 9 stars in the NSC of the Milky Way, observed with the IGRINS spectrometer on the Gemini South telescope. This study provides new, crucial observational evidence to shed light on the origin of the NSC. We demonstrate that it is possible to probe a variety of nucleosynthetic channels, reflecting different chemical evolution timescales. Our findings reveal that the NSC trends for the elements F, Mg, Al, Si, S, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn, as well as the s-process elements Ba, Ce, Nd, and Yb, generally follow the inner bulge trends within uncertainties. This suggests a likely shared evolutionary history and our results indicate that the NSC population is consistent with the chemical sequence observed in the inner Galaxy (the inner-disk sequence). However, we identify a significant and unexplained difference in the form of higher Na abundances in the NSC compared to the inner-bulge. This is also observed in few Galactic globular clusters, and may suggest a common enrichment process at work in all these systems.

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arXiv2025

Gaps in stellar streams as a result of globular cluster fly-bys

Thin stellar streams, such as those resulting from the tidal disruption of globular clusters, have long been known and used as probes of the gravitational potential of our Galaxy, both its visible and dark contents. In particular, the presence of under-density regions, or gaps, along these streams is commonly interpreted as being due to the close passage of dark matter sub-halos. In this work, we investigate the perturbations induced on streams by the passage of dense stellar systems, such as globular clusters themselves, to test the possibility that they may cause the formation of gaps as well. In particular, we focus on the study of the stream of Palomar 5, a well-known globular cluster in the Galactic halo, which has particularly long tidal tails. For this purpose, we used a particle-test code to simulate Palomar 5's tidal tails when subjected to the Galaxy's gravitational field plus its whole system of globular clusters. Our study shows that the tails of Palomar 5 can be strongly perturbed by the close passage of other clusters, in particular of NGC 2808, NGC 7078, NGC 104, and that these perturbations induce the formation of gaps in the tails. These results show that globular clusters are capable of inducing gaps in streams--as other baryonic components such as giant molecular clouds and the galactic bar have been shown to do in other works. Therefore, when searching to construct the distribution function of dark matter sub halos within the Milky Way, the gap contribution from globular clusters must be included.

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arXiv2024

Abundance ties: Nephele and the globular cluster population accreted with $ω$ Cen. Based on APOGEE DR17 and Gaia EDR3

The peculiar Galactic globular cluster $ω$ Centauri (NGC 5139) has drawn attention for its unique features - such as a high stellar mass and a broad distribution of chemical elements - that have led to the hypothesis that it might be the nuclear remnant of an ancient dwarf galaxy accreted by the Milky Way (MW), potentially bringing along its own globular cluster (GC) system. In this work, we adopt an innovative approach by examining the individual chemical abundances of Galactic GCs. Applying Gaussian Mixture Models to globular cluster stars, whose membership is based on Gaia EDR3, and whose chemical abundances are provided by APOGEE DR17, we depart from traditional kinematic-based procedures and search for GCs that are chemically compatible with $ω$ Cen in a 8-dimensional space defined by [Fe/H], [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], [C/Fe], [Al/Fe], [K/Fe], and [Mn/Fe]. Our analysis leads to the identification of six GCs - NGC 6752, NGC 6656, NGC 6809, NGC 6273, NGC 6205, and NGC 6254 - that exhibit strong chemical similarities with $ω$ Cen, and which have metallicities that coincide with those of the two main peaks of $ω$ Cen's metallicity distribution. The chemical patterns of these clusters lead to the exclusion that they formed in progenitor galaxies with chemical enrichment histories similar to those of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, Sagittarius, and Fornax. Once placed in kinematic spaces such as the energy - angular momentum plane, these GCs result scattered across an extended region, which is predicted by N-body simulations if their common progenitor was sufficiently massive compared to the MW. Our novel approach suggests a common origin for NGC 6752, NGC 6656, NGC 6809, NGC 6273, NGC 6205, NGC 6254 and $ω$ Cen, indicating that Nephele, as we propose to call the progenitor in which these GCs formed, played a substantial role in the Galaxy's history.

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arXiv2024

Rediscovering the Milky Way with orbit superposition approach and APOGEE data III. Panoramic view of the bulge

The innermost parts of the Milky Way (MW) are very difficult to observe due to the high extinction along the line of sight, especially close to the disc mid-plane. However, this region contains the most massive complex stellar component of the MW, the bulge, primarily composed of disc stars whose structure is (re-)shaped by the evolution of the bar. In this work, we extend the application of the orbit superposition method to explore the present-day 3D structure, orbital composition, chemical abundance trends and kinematics of the MW bulge. Thanks to our approach, we are able to transfer astrometry from Gaia and stellar parameters from APOGEE DR 17 to map the inner MW without obscuration by the survey footprint and selection function. We demonstrate that the MW bulge is made of two main populations originating from a metal-poor, high-α thick disc and a metal-rich, low-α thin disc, with a mass ratio of 4:3, seen as two major components in the MDF. Finer MDF structures hint at multiple sub-populations associated with different orbital families of the bulge, which, however, have broad MDFs themselves. Decomposition using 2D GMMs in [Fe/H] -[Mg/Fe] identifies five components including a population with ex-situ origin. Two dominant ones correspond to the thin and thick discs and two in between trace the transition between them. We show that no universal metallicity gradient value can characterise the MW bulge. The radial gradients closely trace the X-shaped bulge density structure, while the vertical gradient variations follow the boxy component. While having, on average, subsolar metallicity, the MW bulge populations are more metal-rich compared to the surrounding disc, in agreement with extragalactic observations and state-of-the-art simulations reinforcing its secular origin.

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arXiv2024

Rediscovering the Milky Way with orbit superposition approach and APOGEE data II. Chrono-chemo-kinematics of the disc

The stellar disc is the dominant luminous component of the Milky Way (MW). Although our understanding of its structure is rapidly expanding due to advances in large-scale stellar surveys, our picture of the MW disc remains substantially obscured by selection functions and incomplete spatial coverage of observational data. In this work, we present the comprehensive chrono-chemo-kinematic structure of the MW disc, recovered using a novel orbit superposition approach combined with data from APOGEE DR 17. We detect periodic azimuthal metallicity variations within 6-8 kpc with an amplitude of 0.05-0.1 dex peaking along the bar major axis. The radial metallicity profile of the MW also varies with azimuth, displaying a pattern typical among other disc galaxies: a decline outside the solar radius and an almost flat profile in the inner region, attributed to the presence of old, metal-poor high-α populations, which comprise about 40% of the total stellar mass. The geometrically defined thick disc and the high-α populations have comparable masses, with differences in their stellar population content, which we quantify using the reconstructed 3D MW structure. The well-known [α/Fe]-bimodality in the MW disc, once weighted by stellar mass, is less pronounced at a given metallicity for the whole galaxy but distinctly visible in a narrow range of galactic radii (5-9 kpc), explaining its relative lack of prominence in external galaxies and galaxy formation simulations. Analysing a more evident double age-abundance sequence, we construct a scenario for the MW disc formation, advocating for an inner/outer disc dichotomy genetically linked to the MW's evolutionary stages. In this picture, the extended solar vicinity is a transition zone that shares chemical properties of both the inner (old age-metallicity sequence) and outer discs (young age-metallicity sequence).

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arXiv2024

The disc origin of the Milky Way bulge: On the high velocity dispersion of metal-rich stars at low latitude

Previous studies of the chemo-kinematic properties of stars in the Galactic bulge have revealed a puzzling trend. Along the bulge minor axis, and close to the Galactic plane, metal-rich stars display a higher line-of-sight velocity dispersion compared to metal-poor stars, while at higher latitudes metal-rich stars have lower velocity dispersions than metal-poor stars, similar to what is found in the Galactic disc. In this work, we re-examine this issue, by studying the dependence of line-of-sight velocity dispersions on metallicity and latitude in the latest APOGEE Data Release 17, confirming the results of previous works. We then analyse an N-body simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy, also taking into account observational biases introduced by the APOGEE selection function. We show that the inversion in the line-of-sight velocity dispersion-latitude relation observed in the Galactic bulge can be reproduced by our model. We show that this inversion is a natural consequence of a scenario in which the bulge is a boxy/peanut-shaped structure, whose metal-rich and metal-poor stars mainly originate from the thin and thick disc of the Milky Way, respectively. Due to their cold kinematics, metal-rich, thin disc stars, are efficiently trapped in the boxy/peanut bulge, and, at low latitudes, show a strong barred morphology, which results in high velocity dispersions which are larger than those attained by the metal-poor populations. Extremely metal-rich stars in the Galactic bulge, which have received renewed attention in the literature, do follow the same trends as those of the metal-rich populations. The line-of-sight velocity-latitude relation observed in the Galactic bulge for metal-poor and metal-rich stars are thus both an effect of the intrinsic nature of the Galactic bulge and of the angle at which we observe it from the Sun.

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arXiv2024

Effects of secular growth and mergers on the evolution of metallicity gradients and azimuthal variations in a Milky Way-like galaxy

We analyze the evolution of the radial profiles and the azimuthal variations of the stellar metallicities from the Vintergatan simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy. We find that negative gradients exist as soon as the disk settles at high redshift, and are maintained throughout the long term evolution of the galaxy, including during major merger events. The inside-out growth of the disk and an overall outward radial migration tend to flatten these gradients in time. Major merger events only have a moderate and short-lived imprint on the [Fe/H] distributions with almost no radial dependence. The reason lies in the timescale for enrichment in Fe being significantly longer than the duration of the starbursts episodes, themselves slower than dynamical mixing during typical interactions. It results that signatures of major mergers become undetectable in [Fe/H] only a few Myr after pericenter passages. We note that considering other tracers like the warm interstellar medium, or monitoring the evolution of the metallicity gradient as a single value instead of a radial full profile could lead to different interpretations, and warn against an oversimplification of this complex problem.

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arXiv2024

Metallicity distributions of halo stars: do they trace the Galactic accretion history?

The standard cosmological scenario predicts a hierarchical formation for galaxies. Many substructures were found in the Galactic halo, identified as clumps in kinematic spaces, like the energy-angular momentum one (E-Lz), under the hypothesis of the conservation of these quantities. If these clumps also feature different chemical properties, e.g. metallicity distribution functions (MDF), they are often associated to independent merger debris. The aim of this study is to explore to what extent we can couple kinematics and metallicities of stars in the Galactic halo to reconstruct the accretion history of the Milky Way. In particular, we want to understand whether different clumps in the E-Lz space with different MDF should be associated to distinct merger debris. We analysed dissipationless, self-consistent high-resolution N-body simulations of a MW-type galaxy accreting a satellite with mass ratio 1:10, with different orbital parameters and metallicity gradients (assigned a posteriori). We confirm that accreted stars from a ~1:10 satellite redistribute in a wide range of E and Lz, due to the dynamical friction, thus not being associated to a single clump. Because satellite stars with different metallicities can be deposited in different regions of the E-Lz space (on average the more metal-rich ones end up more gravitationally bound to the MW), this implies that a single ~1:10 accretion can manifest with different MDFs, in different regions of the E-Lz space. Groups of stars with different E, Lz and metallicities may be interpreted as originating from different satellites, but our analysis shows that these interpretations are not physically motivated. In fact, the coupling of kinematics with MDFs to reconstruct the accretion history of the MW can bias the reconstructed merger tree towards increasing the number of past accretions and decreasing the masses of the progenitor galaxies.

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arXiv2024

Timing the Milky Way bar formation and the accompanying radial migration episode

We derive the metallicity profile of the Milky Way low-$α$ disc population from 2 to 20 kpc from the Galactic centre in 1 Gyr age bins using the astroNN catalogue, and show that it is highly structured, with a plateau between 4 and 7 kpc and a break at 10-12 kpc. We argue that these features result from the two main bar resonances, the corotation and the Outer Lindblad Resonance (OLR), respectively. We show that the break in the metallicity profile is most visible in stars having 7-8 Gyr, reaching an amplitude of about 0.4 dex, and is the signpost of the position of the bar OLR. The bar formation was accompanied by an episode of radial migration triggered by its slowing down and is responsible for spreading old metal-rich stars up to the OLR. The data show that the slowdown of the bar ended 6-7 Gyr ago. Based on numerical simulations that reproduce well the break observed in the metallicity profile, we argue that this implies that the bar formed in our Galaxy 8-10 Gyr ago. Analysis of the metallicity distribution as a function of radius shows no evidence of significant systematic outward radial migration after this first episode. We argue that the variation of the metallicity dispersion as a function of the guiding radius is dominated by the migration triggered by the bar, but also that the libration of orbits around the bar resonances induces a mixing that may have a significant impact on the observed metallicity dispersion. In contrast, the absence of a break in the metallicity profile of populations younger than about $\sim$6 Gyr and the flattening of the gradient at younger ages is interpreted as evidence that the strength of the bar has decreased, loosening its barrier effect and allowing the gas and metals on both sides of the OLR to mix, erasing the break. Beyond the OLR, stars younger than 7 Gyr show very small metallicity dispersion, suggesting no or limited migration.

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arXiv2024

Closing the gap: secular evolution of bar-induced dark gaps in presence of thick discs

The presence of dark gaps, a preferential light deficit along the bar minor axis, is observationally well known. The properties of dark gaps are thought to be associated with the properties of bars, and their spatial locations are often associated with bar resonances. However, a systematic study, testing the robustness and universality of these assumptions, is still largely missing. Here, we investigate the formation and evolution of bar-induced dark gaps using a suite of N-body models of (kinematically cold) thin and (kinematically hot) thick discs with varying thick disc mass fraction, and different thin-to-thick disc geometry. We find that dark gaps are a natural consequence of the trapping of disc stars by the bar. The properties of dark gaps (such as strength and extent) are well correlated with the properties of bars. For stronger dark gaps, the fractional mass loss along the bar minor axis can reach up to ~60-80 percent of the initial mass contained, which is redistributed within the bar. These trends hold true irrespective of the mass fraction in the thick disc and the assumed disc geometry. In all our models harbouring slow bars, none of the resonances (corotation, Inner Lindblad resonance, and 4:1 ultra-harmonic resonance) associated with the bar correspond to the location of dark gaps, thereby suggesting that the location of dark gaps is not a universal proxy for these bar resonances, in contrast with earlier studies.

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arXiv2024

Looking for a needle in a haystack: Measuring the length of a stellar bar

One of the challenges related to stellar bars is to accurately determine the length of the bar in a disc galaxy. In the literature, a wide variety of methods have been employed to measure the extent of a bar. However, a systematic study on determining the robustness and accuracy of different bar length estimators is still beyond our grasp. Here, we investigate the accuracy and the correlation (if any) between different bar length measurement methods while using an N-body model of a barred galaxy, where the bar evolves self-consistently in the presence of a live dark matter halo. We investigate the temporal evolution of the bar length, using different estimators (involving isophotal analysis of de-projected surface brightness distribution and Fourier decomposition of surface density), and we study their robustness and accuracy. We made further attempts to determine correlations among any two of these bar length estimators used here. In the presence of spirals, the bar length estimators that only consider the amplitudes of different Fourier moments (and do not take into account the phase-angle of m=2 Fourier moment) systematically overestimate the length of the bar. The strength of dark-gaps (produced by bars) is strongly correlated with the bar length in early rapid growth phase and is only weakly anti-correlated during subsequent quiescent phase of bar evolution. However, the location of dark-gaps is only weakly correlated to the bar length, hence, this information cannot be used as a robust proxy for determining the bar length. In addition, the bar length estimators, obtained using isophotal analysis of de-projected surface brightness distribution, systematically overestimate the bar length. The implications of bar length over(under)estimation in the context of determining fast and slow bars are further discussed in this work.

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arXiv2023

Bars and boxy/peanut bulges in thin and thick discs III. Boxy/peanut bulge formation and evolution in presence of thick discs

Boxy/peanut (b/p) bulges, the vertically extended inner parts of bars, are ubiquitous in barred galaxies in the local Universe, including our own Milky Way. At the same time, a majority of external galaxies and the Milky Way also possess a thick-disc. However, the dynamical effect of thick-discs in the b/p formation and evolution is not fully understood. Here, we investigate the effect of thick-discs in the formation and evolution of b/ps by using a suite of N-body models of (kinematically cold) thin and (kinematically hot) thick discs. Within the suite of models, we systematically vary the mass fraction of the thick disc, and the thin-to-thick disc scale length ratio. The b/ps form in almost all our models via a vertical buckling instability, even in the presence of a massive thick disc. The thin disc b/p is much stronger than the thick disc b/p. With increasing thick disc mass fraction, the final b/p structure gets progressively weaker in strength and larger in extent. Furthermore, the time-interval between the bar formation and the onset of buckling instability gets progressively shorter with increasing thick-disc mass fraction. The breaking and restoration of the vertical symmetry (during and after the b/p formation) show a spatial variation -- the inner bar region restores vertical symmetry rather quickly (after the buckling) while in the outer bar region, the vertical asymmetry persists long after the buckling happens. Our findings also predict that at higher redshifts, when discs are thought to be thicker, b/ps would have more 'boxy-shaped' appearance than more 'X-shaped' appearance. This remains to be tested from future observations at higher redshifts.

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arXiv2023

The stellar halo in Local Group Hestia simulations I. The in-situ component and the effect of mergers

Theory suggests that mergers play an important role in shaping galactic discs and stellar haloes, which was observationally confirmed in the MW thanks to Gaia data. In this work, aiming to probe the contribution of mergers to the in situ stellar halo formation, we analyse six M31/MW analogues from the HESTIA suite of cosmological hydrodynamical zoom-in simulations of the LG. We found that all the HESTIA galaxies experience between one to four mergers with stellar mass ratios between 0.2 and 1 relative to the host at the time of the merger. These significant mergers, with a single exception, happened 7-11Gyr ago. The overall impact of the most massive mergers in HESTIA is clearly seen as a sharp increase in the orbital eccentricity (and a corresponding decrease in the rotational velocity Vphi of pre-existing disc stars of the main progenitor, thus nicely reproducing the Splash-, Plume-like feature that was discovered in the MW. We do find a correlation between mergers and close pericentric passages of massive satellites and bursts of star formation in the in situ component. Massive mergers sharply increase the disc velocity dispersion of the in situ stars; however, the latest significant merger often heats up the disc up to the numbers when the contribution of the previous ones is less prominent in the age-velocity dispersion relation. In HESTIA galaxies, the in situ halo is an important component of the inner stellar halo where its fraction is about 30-40%, while in the outer parts it typically does not exceed ~5% beyond 15 kpc. The simulations suggest that this component of the stellar haloes continues to grow well after mergers conclude; however, the most significant contribution comes from stars that formed recently before the merger. The orbital analysis of the HESTIA galaxies suggests that wedges in Rmax-Zmax space are mainly populated by the stars born between significant mergers.

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arXiv2023

The stellar halo in Local Group Hestia simulations II. The accreted component

In the Milky Way, recent progress in the exploration of its assembly history is driven by the tremendous amount of high-quality data delivered by Gaia, which has revealed a number of substructures potentially linked to several ancient accretion events. In this work, aiming to explore the phase-space structure of accreted stars, we analyze six M31/MW analogues from the HESTIA suite of cosmological hydrodynamics zoom-in simulations of the Local Group. We found that all the HESTIA galaxies experience a few dozen mergers but only 1-4 mergers have the stellar mass ratio >0.2 where, depending on the halo definition, the most massive merger contributes from 20% to 70% of the total stellar halo. Individual merger remnants show diverse density distributions at z=0, significantly overlapping with each other and with the in-situ stars in the ELz, UV and RVphi coordinates. The mergers debris often change their position in the ELz with time due to the galactic mass growth and the non-axisymmetry of the potential. In agreement with previous works, we show that even individual merger debris exhibit a number of distinct ELz features. In the UV plane, all HESTIA galaxies reveal radially hot, non-rotating or weakly counter-rotating, Gaia-Sausage-like features. We found an age gradient in Elz space for the individual debris, where the youngest stars, formed in the inner regions of accreting systems, deposit to the innermost regions of the host. The bulk of these stars is being formed during the last stages of accretion, making it possible to date the merger. In actions space (Jr, Jz, Jϕ), the mergers debris do not appear as isolated substructures but are instead scattered over a large parameters area and overlapping with the in-situ stars. We also introduce a purely kinematic space (Jz/Jr-eccentricity), where different merger debris can be disentangled better from each other and from the in-situ stars.

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arXiv2023

Stragglers of the thick disc

Young alpha-rich (YAR) stars have been detected in the past as outliers to the local age $\rm-$ [$α$/Fe] relation. These objects are enhanced in $α$-elements but apparently younger than typical thick disc stars. We study the global kinematics and chemical properties of YAR giant stars in APOGEE DR17 survey and show that they have properties similar to those of the standard thick disc stellar population. This leads us to conclude that YAR are rejuvenated thick disc objects, most probably evolved blue stragglers. This is confirmed by their position in the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram (HRD). Extending our selection to dwarfs allows us to obtain the first general straggler distribution in an HRD of field stars. We also compare the elemental abundances of our sample with those of standard thick disc stars, and find that our YAR stars are shifted in oxygen, magnesium, sodium, and the slow neutron-capture element cerium. Although we detect no sign of binarity for most objects, the enhancement in cerium may be the signature of a mass transfer from an asymptotic giant branch companion. The most massive YAR stars suggest that mass transfer from an evolved star may not be the only formation pathway, and that other scenarios, such as collision or coalescence should be considered.

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arXiv2023

Bars and boxy/peanut bulges in thin and thick discs. II. Can bars form in hot thick discs?

The Milky Way as well as a majority of external galaxies possess a thick disc. However, the dynamical role of the (geometrically) thick disc on the bar formation and evolution is not fully understood. Here, we investigate the effect of thick discs in bar formation and evolution by means of a suite of N-body models of (kinematically cold) thin-(kinematically hot) thick discs. We systematically vary the mass fraction of the thick disc, the thin-to-thick disc scale length ratio as well as thick disc's scale height to examine the bar formation under diverse dynamical scenarios. Bars form almost always in our models, even in presence of a massive thick disc. The part of the bar constituted by the thick disc closely follows the overall growth and temporal evolution of the part of the bar constituted by the thin disc, only the part of the bar in the thick disc is weaker than the part of the bar in the thin disc. The formation of stronger bars is associated with a simultaneous larger loss of angular momentum and a larger radial heating. In addition, we demonstrate a preferential loss of angular momentum and a preferential radial heating of disc stars, along the azimuthal direction within the extent of the bar, in both thin and thick disc stars. For purely thick disc models (without any thin disc), the bar formation critically depends on the disc scale length and scale height. A larger scale length and/or a larger vertical scale height delays the bar formation time and/or suppresses the bar formation almost completely in thick-disc-only models. We find that the Ostriker-Peeble criterion predicts the bar instability scenarios in our models better than the Efstathiou-Lake-Negroponte criterion.

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arXiv2023

The distribution of globular clusters in kinematic spaces does not trace the accretion history of the host galaxy

Reconstructing how all the stellar components of the Galaxy formed and assembled over time, by studying the properties of the stars which make it, is the aim of Galactic archeology. In these last years, thanks to the launch of the ESA Gaia astrometric mission, and the development of many spectroscopic surveys, we are for the first time in the position to delve into the layers of the past of our galaxy. Globular clusters (GCs) play a fundamental role in this research field since they are among the oldest stellar systems in the Milky Way (MW) and so bear witness of its entire past. In the recent years, there have been several attempts to constrain the nature of clusters (accreted or formed in the MW itself) through the analysis of kinematic spaces and to reconstruct from this the properties of the accretions events experienced by the MW through time. This work aims to test a widely-used assumption about the clustering of the accreted populations of GCs in the integrals of motions space. We analyze a set of dissipation-less N-body simulations that reproduce the accretion of one or two satellites with their GC population on a MW-type galaxy. Our results demonstrate that a significant overlap between accreted and "kinematically-heated" in-situ GCs is expected in kinematic spaces, for mergers with mass ratios of 1:10. In contrast with standard assumptions made in the literature so far, we find that accreted GCs do not show dynamical coherence, that is they do not cluster in kinematic spaces. In addition, GCs can also be found in regions dominated by stars which have a different origin (i.e. different progenitor). This casts doubt on the association between GCs and field stars that is generally made in the literature to assign them to a common origin. Our findings severely question the recovered accretion history of the MW based on the phase-space clustering of the GC population.

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