Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 436, Issue 4, Pages 3231-3246Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stt1804
Keywords
Galaxy: abundances; Galaxy: disc; Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics; Galaxy: stellar content; Galaxy: structure
Categories
Funding
- Australian Astronomical Observatory
- Leibniz-Institut fuer Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP)
- Australian National University
- Australian Research Council
- French National Research Agency
- German Research Foundation [SPP 1177, SFB 881]
- European Research Council [ERC-StG 240271]
- Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica at Padova
- Johns Hopkins University
- National Science Foundation of the USA [AST-0908326]
- W. M. Keck foundation
- Macquarie University
- Netherlands Research School for Astronomy
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Slovenian Research Agency
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- Science & Technology Facilities Council of the UK
- Opticon
- Strasbourg Observatory and the Universities of Groningen, Heidelberg and Sydney
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [0908326] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/K000985/1, ST/H00243X/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- UK Space Agency [ST/I000852/1, PP/D006570/1, ST/K00056X/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- STFC [ST/K000985/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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By selecting in the Radial Velocity Experiment-fourth data release (RAVE-DR4) survey the stars located between 1 and 2 kpc above the Galactic plane, we question the consistency of the simplest three-component model (thin disc, thick disc and halo) for the Milky Way. We confirm that the metallicity and azimuthal velocity distribution functions of the thick disc are not Gaussian. In particular, we find that the thick disc has an extended metallicity tail going at least down to [M/H] = 2 dex, contributing roughly 3 per cent of the entire thick disc population and having a shorter scalelength compared to the canonical thick disc. The mean azimuthal velocity of these metal-poor stars allows us to estimate the correlation between the metallicity ([M/H]) and the orbital velocity (V-phi), which is an important constraint on the formation mechanisms of the Galactic thick disc. Given our simple approach, we find V-phi[M/H] 50 km s(-1) dex(-1), which is in very good agreement with previous literature values. We complete the study with a brief discussion on the implications of the formation scenarios for the thick disc and suggest that given the above-mentioned characteristics, a thick disc mainly formed by radial migration mechanisms seems unlikely.
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