Browsing by Author "Belokurov, Vasily"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Elevated r-process Enrichment in Gaia Sausage and Sequoia*
    (2021) Aguado, David S.; Belokurov, Vasily; Myeong, G. C.; Evans, N. Wyn; Kobayashi, Chiaki; Sbordone, Luca; Chaname, Julio; Navarrete, Camila; Koposov, Sergey E.
    The Gaia Sausage (GS) and the Sequoia represent the major accretion events that formed the stellar halo of the Milky Way. A detailed chemical study of these main building blocks provides a pristine view of the early steps of the Galaxy's assembly. We present the results of the analysis of the UVES high-resolution spectroscopic observations at the 8.2 m VLT of nine Sausage/Sequoia members selected kinematically using Gaia DR2. We season this set of measurements with archival data from Nissen & Schuster and GALAH DR3 (2020). Here, we focus on the neutron-capture process by analyzing Sr, Y, Ba, and Eu behavior. We detect clear enhancement in Eu abundance ([Eu/Fe] similar to 0.6-0.7) indicative of large prevalence of the r-process in the stellar n-capture makeup. We are also able to trace the evolution of the heavy element production across a wide range of metallicity. The barium to europium changes from a tight, flat sequence with [Ba/Eu] = -0.7 reflecting dominant contribution from exploding massive stars, to a clear upturn at higher iron abundances, betraying the onset of contamination from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) ejecta. Additionally, we discover two clear sequences in the [Fe/H]-[Ba/Fe] plane likely caused by distinct levels of s-process pollution and mixing within the GS progenitor.
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    KINEMATICS AND CHEMISTRY OF RECENTLY DISCOVERED RETICULUM 2 AND HOROLOGIUM 1 DWARF GALAXIES
    (2015) Koposov, Sergey E.; Casey, Andrew R.; Belokurov, Vasily; Lewis, James R.; Gilmore, Gerard; Worley, Clare; Hourihane, Anna; Randich, S.; Bensby, T.; Bragaglia, A.; Bergemann, M.; Carraro, G.; Costado, M. T.; Flaccomio, E.; Francois, P.; Heiter, U.; Hill, V.; Jofre, P.; Lando, C.; Lanzafame, A. C.; de Laverny, P.; Monaco, L.; Morbidelli, L.; Sbordone, L.; Mikolaitis, S.; Ryde, N.
    We report on VLT/GIRAFFE spectra of stars in two recently discovered ultra-faint satellites, Reticulum 2 and Horologium 1, obtained as part of the Gaia-ESO Survey. We identify 18 members in Reticulum 2 and five in Horologium 1. We find Reticulum 2 to have a velocity dispersion of 3.22(-0.49)(+1.64) km s(-1) , implying a mass-to-light ratio (M/L) of similar to 500. The mean metallicity of Reticulum 2 is [Fe/H] = -2.46, with an intrinsic dispersion of similar to 0.3 dex and alpha-enhancement of similar to 0.4 dex. We conclude that Reticulum 2 is a dwarf galaxy. We also report on the serendipitous discovery of four stars in a previously unknown stellar substructure near Reticulum 2 with [Fe/H] similar to -2 and V-hel similar to 220 km s(-1), far from the systemic velocity of Reticulum 2. For Horologium 1 we infer a velocity dispersion of sigma (V) = 4.9(-0.9)(+2.8) km s(-1) and a M/L ratio of similar to 600, leading us to conclude that Horologium 1 is also a dwarf galaxy. Horologium 1 is slightly more metal-poor than Reticulum 2 ([Fe/H] = -2.76) and is similarly alpha-enhanced: [alpha/Fe] similar to 0.3 dex with a significant spread of metallicities of 0.17 dex. The line-of-sight velocity of Reticulum 2 is offset by 100 km s(-1) from the prediction of the orbital velocity of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), thus making its association with the Cloud uncertain. However, at the location of Horologium 1, both the backward-integrated orbit of the LMC and its halo are predicted to have radial velocities similar to that of the dwarf. Therefore, it is possible that Horologium 1 is or once was a member of the Magellanic family.
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    Searching for fossil remnants in the Galactic halo: photometric follow-up of southern CRTScandidates
    (2015) Chan, Siukuen Josephine; Navarrete, Camila; Catelan, Marcio; Duffau, Sonia; Torrealba, Gabriel. I.; Drake, Andrew J.; Belokurov, Vasily; Koposov, Sergey
    Observations of the fossil record of the early formation stages of the Milky Way galaxy provide important constraints on cosmological scenarios for the formation of large galaxies like our own. While the northern celestial hemisphere has been extensively examined for the presence and degree of halo substructure, the southern halo has until recently remained "terra incognita" for such studies. However, based on RR Lyrae stars detected in the course of the Catalina Real-time Transients Survey (CRTS), our team has identified a number of new candidate overdensities in the southern Galactic halo (Torrealba et al. 2015, MNRAS, 446, 2251). Here we describe some preliminary results of a deeper search for the Torrealba et al. overdensity candidates, using photometric data from selected wide-field surveys that have mapped the immediate vicinity of some of the more promising among these candidates....
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    The S2 stream: the shreds of a primitive dwarf galaxy
    (2021) Aguado, David S.; Myeong, G. C.; Belokurov, Vasily; Evans, N. Wyn; Koposov, Sergey E.; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Lanfranchi, Gustavo A.; Matteucci, Francesca; Shetrone, Matthew; Sbordone, Luca; Navarrete, Camila; Gonzalez Hernandez, Jonay, I; Chaname, Julio; Peralta de Arriba, Luis; Yuan, Zhen
    The S2 stream is a kinematically cold stream that is plunging downwards through the Galactic disc. It may be part of a hotter and more diffuse structure called the Helmi stream. We present a multi-instrument chemical analysis of the stars in the metal-poor S2 stream using both high- and low-resolution spectroscopy, complemented with a re-analysis of the archival data to give a total sample of 62 S2 members. Our high-resolution program provides alpha-elements (C, Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti), iron-peak elements (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni), n-capture process elements (Sr, Ba), and other elements such as Li, Na, Al, and Sc for a subsample of S2 objects. We report coherent abundance patterns over a large metallicity spread (similar to 1 dex) confirming that the S2 stream was produced by a disrupted dwarf galaxy. The combination of S2's alpha-elements displays a mildly decreasing trend with increasing metallicity, which can be tentatively interpreted as a 'knee' at [Fe/H] < -2. At the low-metallicity end, the n-capture elements in S2 may be dominated by r-process production; however, several stars are Ba-enhanced but unusually poor in Sr. Moreover, some of the low-[Fe/H] stars appear to be carbon-enhanced. We interpret the observed abundance patterns with the help of chemical evolution models that demonstrate the need for modest star formation efficiency and low wind efficiency confirming that the progenitor of S2 was a primitive dwarf galaxy.