Journal
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
Volume 647, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
EDP SCIENCES S A
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202040255
Keywords
stars: abundances; stars: chemically peculiar; globular clusters: individual: NGC 6723; techniques: spectroscopic
Categories
Funding
- Physics Frontier Center/JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE) - US National Science Foundation [PHY 14-30152]
- BASAL Center for Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (CATA) [AFB 170002]
- Chilean Centro de Excelencia en Astrofisica y Tecnologias Afines (CATA) BASAL grant [AFB-170002]
- Direccion de Investigacion y Desarrollo de la Universidad de La Serena through the Programa de Incentivo a la Investigacion de Academicos (PIA-DIDULS)
- Fondecyt [1170518, 3180210, 1170121, 1170364]
- FAPESP PhD fellowship [2018/22044-3]
- FAPESP
- CNPq
- CAPES [001]
- DGAPA-PAPIIT [IG100319]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [U1931102]
- hundred-talent project of Sun Yat-sen University
- Fondecyt Regular [1201490]
- ANID, Millennium Science Initiative [ICN12_009]
- UA VRIIP from Ministerio de Educacion, Chile [ANT1855, ANT1856]
- Argentinian institution CONICET
- Argentinian institution SECYT (Universidad Nacional de Cordoba)
- Chile by Agencia Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo (ANID) through the FONDECYT project [1170476]
- Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento para la Ciencia, La Tecnologia y la innovacion Francisco Jose De Caldas
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science
- Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah
- Brazilian Participation Group
- Carnegie Institution for Science
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Chilean Participation Group
- French Participation Group
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
- Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
- Johns Hopkins University
- Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)/University of Tokyo
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Leibniz Institut fur Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP)
- MaxPlanck-Institut fur Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg)
- Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik (MPA Garching)
- Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE)
- National Astronomical Observatory of China
- New Mexico State University
- New York University
- University of Notre Dame
- Observatorio Nacional/MCTI
- Ohio State University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Shanghai Astronomical Observatory
- United Kingdom Participation Group
- Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
- University of Arizona
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Oxford
- University of Portsmouth
- University of Utah
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington
- University of Wisconsin
- Vanderbilt University
- Yale University
- MINCIENCIAS
- VIIS
- [BASAL AFB-170002]
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The study reveals a star that was likely ejected from the globular cluster NGC 6723, showing high nitrogen abundance, enrichment in heavy elements and carbon, characteristics similar to those found in globular clusters. This suggests that some nitrogen-enhanced stars in the central region of the Milky Way likely originated from tidal disruption of globular clusters.
The central ('bulge') region of the Milky Way is teeming with a significant fraction of mildly metal-deficient stars with atmospheres that are strongly enriched in cyanogen ((CN)-C-12-N-14). Some of these objects, which are also known as nitrogen-enhanced stars, are hypothesised to be relics of the ancient assembly history of the Milky Way. Although the chemical similarity of nitrogen-enhanced stars to the unique chemical patterns observed in globular clusters has been observed, a direct connection between field stars and globular clusters has not yet been proven. In this work, we report on high-resolution, near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the bulge globular cluster NGC 6723, and the serendipitous discovery of a star, 2M18594405-3651518, located outside the cluster (near the tidal radius) but moving on a similar orbit, providing the first clear piece of evidence of a star that was very likely once a cluster member and has recently been ejected. Its nitrogen abundance ratio ([N/Fe] greater than or similar to +0.94) is well above the typical Galactic field-star levels, and it exhibits noticeable enrichment in the heavy s-process elements (Ce, Nd, and Yb), along with moderate carbon enrichment; all characteristics are known examples in globular clusters. This result suggests that some of the nitrogen-enhanced stars in the bulge likely originated from the tidal disruption of globular clusters.
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