Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 465, Issue 1, Pages 501-524Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw2162
Keywords
stars: abundances; stars: chemically peculiar; Galaxy: abundances; Galaxy: bulge; globular clusters: general; Galaxy: halo
Categories
Funding
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- US Department of Energy Office of Science
- University of Arizona
- Brazilian Participation Group
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- University of Cambridge
- Carnegie Mellon University
- University of Florida
- French Participation Group
- German Participation Group
- Harvard University
- Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
- Michigan State/Notre Dame/JINA Participation Group
- Johns Hopkins University
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
- New Mexico State University
- New York University
- Ohio State University
- Pennsylvania State University
- University of Portsmouth
- Princeton University
- Spanish Participation Group
- University of Tokyo
- University of Utah
- Vanderbilt University
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington
- Yale University
- Physics Frontier Center/Joint Institute or Nuclear Astrophysics (JINA) [PHY 14-30152]
- Physics Frontier Center/JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE) by the US National Science Foundation
- US National Science Foundation
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [AYA2010-16717, AYA2013-42781P]
- Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) [AYA2014-56359-P]
- Australian Research Council through DECRA Fellowship [DE140100598]
- Janos Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
- Ramon y Cajal fellowship [RYC-2013-14182]
- MINECO [AYA-2014-58082-P]
- STFC [ST/F007159/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Division Of Physics
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1430152] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/M000966/1, ST/F007159/1] Funding Source: researchfish
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Formation of globular clusters (GCs), the Galactic bulge, or galaxy bulges in general is an important unsolved problem in Galactic astronomy. Homogeneous infrared observations of large samples of stars belonging to GCs and the Galactic bulge field are one of the best ways to study these problems. We report the discovery by APOGEE (Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment) of a population of field stars in the inner Galaxy with abundances of N, C, and Al that are typically found in GC stars. The newly discovered stars have high [N/Fe], which is correlated with [Al/Fe] and anticorrelated with [C/Fe]. They are homogeneously distributed across, and kinematically indistinguishable from, other field stars within the same volume. Their metallicity distribution is seemingly unimodal, peaking at [Fe/H] similar to -1, thus being in disagreement with that of the Galactic GC system. Our results can be understood in terms of different scenarios. N-rich stars could be former members of dissolved GCs, in which case the mass in destroyed GCs exceeds that of the surviving GC system by a factor of similar to 8. In that scenario, the total mass contained in so-called 'first-generation' stars cannot be larger than that in 'second-generation' stars by more than a factor of similar to 9 and was certainly smaller. Conversely, our results may imply the absence of a mandatory genetic link between 'second-generation' stars and GCs. Last, but not least, N-rich stars could be the oldest stars in the Galaxy, the by-products of chemical enrichment by the first stellar generations formed in the heart of the Galaxy.
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