Chemical enrichment and radial migration in the Galactic disc - the origin of the [α/Fe] double sequence

The ([alpha/Fe], [Fe/H]) distribution of Milky Way stars shows at least two distinct sequences, which have traditionally been associated with the thin and thick disc components. The abundance distribution varies systematically with location R and vertical bar z vertical bar across the Galaxy. We reproduce this using an analytical chemodynamical model that includes the effects of radial migration and kinematic heating. Unlike some earlier models, our scheme does not require a distinct thick disc component emerging from a separate evolutionary path. The proposed model has a continuous star formation history and a continuous age velocity dispersion relation. Moreover, [alpha/Fe] is constant for stellar ages less than 8 Gyr, but increases sharply for older stars over a time-scale of 1.5 Gyr. The gap between the two sequences is due to this sharp transition. We show that the high-[alpha/Fe] sequence at the low-metallicity end is simply a pile-up of old stars, but towards the high-metallicity end, the age progressively decreases and stars have small birth radii. Our model successfully explains the uniformity of the locus of the high-[alpha/Fe] sequence across different locations. The low-[alpha/Fe] sequence contains stars with different birth radii that owes its existence to radial migration. For the low-[alpha/Fe] stars, angular momentum is anticorrelated with [Fe/H], while the opposite is true for high-[alpha/Fe] stars. We show that the later trend can be explained by the increase of circular velocity with time. If radial migration is not included, the model fails to generate the double sequence and instead shows only a single sequence. Our simple scheme has major advantages over earlier chemodynamical models, as we show.

Automated summary

The distribution of Milky Way stars in terms of ([alpha/Fe], [Fe/H]) shows at least two distinct sequences, related to the thin and thick disc components. An analytical chemodynamical model has been proposed to explain this phenomenon, showing advantages over earlier models. The model successfully reproduces the systematic variation of abundance distribution with location and vertical position across the Galaxy.