Detailed Abundances for the Old Population near the Galactic Center. I. Metallicity Distribution of the Nuclear Star ClusterShow others and affiliations
2017 (English)In: Astronomical Journal, ISSN 0004-6256, E-ISSN 1538-3881, Vol. 154, no 6, article id 239Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
We report the first high spectral resolution study of 17 M giants kinematically confirmed to lie within a few parsecs of the Galactic center, using R similar to 24,000 spectroscopy from Keck/NIRSPEC and a new line list for the infrared K band. We consider their luminosities and kinematics, which classify these stars as members of the older stellar population and the central cluster. We find a median metallicity of <[Fe H]> = -0.16 and a large spread from approximately -0.3 to +0.3 (quartiles). We find that the highest metallicities are [Fe H] < +0.6, with most of the stars being at or below the solar iron abundance. The abundances and the abundance distribution strongly resemble those of the Galactic bulge rather than the disk or halo; in our small sample we find no statistical evidence for a dependence of velocity dispersion on metallicity.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
IOP Publishing Ltd , 2017. Vol. 154, no 6, article id 239
Keywords [en]
Galaxy: center, stars: abundances, stars: late-type
National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-65210DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa970aISI: 000415867300007Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85039428619OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-65210DiVA, id: diva2:1829606
2024-01-192024-01-192024-01-19Bibliographically approved