Multiple stellar populations

in the galactic bulge

E. Cantelli
 Bulge formation scenarios
● Collapse of protogalactic gas cloud
● Accretion of substructures ΛCDM
● Secular formation from disc material through bar,
vertical instability, buckling, fattening –> boxy/peanut
bulge

Recently, multiple components were found to better

describe the bulge by the means of metallicity
distribution function, kinematics and structure
 A brief introduction
Na-O anticorrelation ubiquity in globular clusters
 Chemical abundances as tracers
Hot-bottom-burning process enrichment
● Not due to processes in observed stars
● Pollution from gas enrichment that
formed the stars
● Scenario requires more than one
generation of stars
● Progenitor types not known so far
 Chemical abundances as tracers
Hot-bottom-burning process
 Possible progenitors
Hot-bottom-burning process

MIB, FRMS → Na-O Mg-Al

Ok Fail

SMS → Na-O Mg-Al

Ok Ok

AGB → Na-O Mg-Al Al-Si Ar-K

Ok Ok Ok Ok
 N-C anticorrelation
Schiavon 2017a
High N stars in the
Bulge field

Multiple trails of N-C

In globular clusters
 Light-N patterns
Schiavon 2017b
shows patterns
pointing towards
multiple stellar pops
using the known
N vs C, Na Al vs N
Al vs Mg
 Disentangling the [α/Fe]
Recio-Blanco 2017 analysis
● 776 red clump stars in 11 bulge fields with -10° ≤ l ≤ +10º
and -4° ≤ b ≤ 10º from GES, which 42 have 2 different
giraffe setups (HR21 and HR10)
● Strict selection criteria with high precision parameters and
abundances, high SN ratio ~ 280, bulge-confined selection
● Abundances of [Fe/H], [Mg/H], [Si/H], [Al/H]
 Disentangling the [α/Fe]

● α-element distribution should present deviations such as

skewness and indeed were found, confirming the asymmetry
● Multiple statistical tests confirm a deviation from normality
● Single-component α-element distribution approach can be
excluded
● NGC 104 and NGC 5927 show [α/Fe] dispersion (0.035 and
0.045 dex respectively) lower than the bulge distribution (0.06
dex), enabling the reliability in a multimodal approach
 Disentangling the [α/Fe]
α-element distribution
 Disentangling the [α/Fe]
[Mg/Fe] and [Si/Fe] vs [Fe/H]
● Selection of objects with deviation larger than 2σ
● 18 objects which 90% of them are within 2.5 kpc from
galactic centre and 66% within 1.8 kpc
● Sample of low-α stars that comprises the bimodality
 Disentangling the [α/Fe]
[Mg/Fe] and [Si/Fe] vs [Fe/H]
 Disentangling the [α/Fe]
Checking abundance anomalies
● Dispersion in the parameters and abundances from the
“anomalous” stars are similar with reference sample
● Spectra of “anomalous” stars confirmed their
overabundances with respect to stellar twins of standard
composition
● The differences between spectroscopic and photometric
Teff have been checked and compared to stars with
standard composition and no problems were found.
 Disentangling the [α/Fe]
Checking abundance anomalies
● Variation of Mg and Si abundances are at least 6 times
smaller than detected anomalies
● Stars presenting anomalies do not belong to a unique GES
field

● All the tests confirm the real α-poor nature of the identified
stars
● For the stars with 2 setups, [Ca/H] has measurements and
2 of them are found to be α-poor even when Ca is
considered (one of them seems to be in the disk sequence)
 Disentangling the [α/Fe]
[α/Fe] sample
Mg and Al
 Mg an Al
● The identified low-α stars do not present globular cluster
patterns
● 3 members of NGC 6522 were observed and one show Al
overabundance and other show Mg depletion, presenting
an Mg-Al anticorrelation → signing multiple populations in
this cluster
 Discussion
● The data reveals the existence of a low-α population of stars
and a (at least) bi-modal distribution of [α/Fe]
Interpretation:
● Massive dwarf galaxies could have an efficient enrichment to
reach the metallicity range of the analysis, but expected 3-σ
deviations in [α/Fe] vs [Fe/H] are not significantly found
● Disc contribution to bulge formation could be raised, but larger
spreads at low metallicities (~ -0.5 dex) would be expected
● Globular clusters could give some clues based on the nitrogen
abundance anomalies
 Globular clusters
● NGC 6553, NGC 6528, Terzan 5, Palomar 6, NGC 6522
have shown anti-correlations between pairs of light
elements, such as C-N, Na-N and Al-N, as well as other
globular clusters.
● CNO, NeNa MgAl cycles took place in many of these
clusters
 Globular clusters
Fenández-Trincado 2017 analysis
● C, N, O, Al, Mg, Si analysis in NGC 6522 using APOGEE
H-band spectra
● Is NGC 6522 a multiple-population fossil relic of one of the
structures that contributed to the N-rich population?
● The link between globular clusters and chemical
“anomalies” (N-rich, α-poor) can be verified?
● Schiavon 2017b presented one NGC 6522 star with
anomalous pattern
 NGC 6522
Data selection
● APOGEE DR13 database
● Stars within the tidal radius of the cluster, rt < 15.8'
● Radial velocity ~ 21±15 km/s
● Metallicity ~ -1.0±3 dex
● 3 stars + 1 from Schiavon 2017b
NGC 6522
 NGC 6522
Abundance analysis
● Original spectra processed by ASPCAP pipeline, and
abundances and parameters are determined by fitting and
interpolating synthetic spectra libraries.
● The analysis was made by spectral synthesis line-by-line
using MOOG and the atomic and molecular data from
internal new ASPCAP linelist.
● Lines were visually inspected to assure quality
● C, N and O were determined by CO, CN and OH
molecules
● Validation checks were performed using isochrone log g
 NGC 6522
Results
● ASPCAP presented some problems in [N/Fe] determinations as
well as inconsistencies, due to N-rich sample – CN lines are too
strong and fall in the edge of the library grid
● The stars present chemical composition compatible with GCs
● The 3 new analysed members show greater [Al/Fe] than the
previously analysed one, suggesting that NGC 6522 shows
large scatter in Al ratios, but similar to other low mass globular
clusters
● The enrichment in N and Al, low Mg and C characterize the
multiple populations pattern, reinforcing the results from
previous works.
NGC 6522
 NGC 6522
Results
● As APOGEE survey visited the stars more than once, radial
velocities were measured and none of the stars have shown
strong variability, thus eliminating binary mass transfer
hypothesis
● Si abundances fall into acceptable ranges with literature on
values for globular clusters
● The three reported members of NGC 6522 suggests that this
group of stars share a common formation history and spatial
relationship, and therefore gravitationally bound to NGC 6522