Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 818, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
IOP Publishing Ltd
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8205/818/1/L6
Keywords
Galaxy: abundances; Galaxy: disk; Galaxy: evolution; Galaxy: formation; Galaxy: kinematics and dynamics; Galaxy: structure
Categories
Funding
- STFC Consolidated grant [ST/M000877/1]
- NSF [AST-1109178, AST-1515001]
- NASA ATP [NNX15AK79G]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science
- Michigan Society of Fellows
- [HST-AR-13890]
- STFC [ST/M000877/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/M000877/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1109178, 1515001] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- NASA [NNX15AK79G, 807043] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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Recent analysis of the SDSS-III/Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) Data Release 12 stellar catalog has revealed that the Milky Way's (MW) metallicity distribution function (MDF) changes shape as a function of radius, transitioning from being negatively skewed at small Galactocentric radii to positively skewed at large Galactocentric radii. Using a high-resolution, N-body+SPH simulation, we show that the changing skewness arises from radial migration-metal-rich stars form in the inner disk and subsequently migrate to the metal-poorer outer disk. These migrated stars represent a large fraction (>50%) of the stars in the outer disk; they populate the high-metallicity tail of the MDFs and are, in general, more metal-rich than the surrounding outer disk gas. The simulation also reproduces another surprising APOGEE result: the spatially invariant high-[alpha/Fe] MDFs. This arises in the simulation from the migration of a population formed within a narrow range of radii (3.2 +/- 1.2 kpc) and time (8.8 +/- 0.6 Gyr ago), rather than from spatially extended star formation in a homogeneous medium at early times. These results point toward the crucial role radial migration has played in shaping our MW.
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