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Elemental abundance survey of the Galactic thick disc
We have performed an abundance analysis for F- and G- dwarfs of theGalactic thick-disc component. A sample of 176 nearby (d<= 150pc)thick-disc candidate stars was chosen from the Hipparcos catalogue andsubjected to a high-resolution spectroscopic analysis. Using accurateradial velocities combined with the Hipparcos astrometry, kinematics (U,V and W) and Galactic orbital parameters were computed. We estimate theprobability for a star to belong to the thin disc, the thick disc or thehalo. With a probability P>= 70 per cent taken as certain membership,we assigned 95 stars to the thick disc, 13 to the thin disc, and 20 tothe halo. The remaining 48 stars in the sample cannot be assigned withreasonable certainty to one of the three components.Abundances of C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni,Cu, Zn, Y, Ba, Ce, Nd and Eu have been obtained. The abundances for thethick-disc stars are compared with those for the thin-disc members fromReddy et al. The ratios of α-elements (O, Mg, Si, Ca and Ti) toiron for thick-disc stars show a clear enhancement compared to thin-discmembers in the range -0.3 < [Fe/H] < -1.2. There are also otherelements - Al, Sc, V, Co, and possibly Zn - which show enhanced ratiosto iron in the thick disc relative to the thin disc. The abundances ofNa, Cr, Mn, Ni and Cu (relative to Fe) are very similar for thin- andthick-disc stars. The dispersion in abundance ratios [X/Fe] at given[Fe/H] for thick-disc stars is consistent with the expected scatter dueto measurement errors, suggesting a lack of `cosmic' scatter.A few stars classified as members of the thick disc by our kinematiccriteria show thin-disc abundances. These stars, which appear older thanmost thin-disc stars, are also, on average, younger than the thick-discpopulation. They may have originated early in the thin-disc history, andbeen subsequently scattered to hotter orbits by collisions. The thickdisc may not include stars with [Fe/H] > -0.3. The observedcompositions of the thin and thick discs seem to be consistent with themodels of galaxy formation by hierarchical clustering in a Lambda colddark matter (ΛCDM) universe.
| Fine structure in the phase space distribution of nearby subdwarfs
We analysed the fine structure of the phase space distribution functionof nearby subdwarfs using data extracted from various catalogues.Applying a new search strategy based on Dekker's theory of galacticorbits, we found four overdensely populated regions in phase space.Three of them were correlated with previously known star streams: theHyades-Pleiades and Hercules streams in the thin disk of the Milky Wayand the Arcturus stream in the thick disk. In addition we find evidencefor another stream in the thick disk, which resembles closely theArcturus stream and probably has the same extragalactic origin.
| Improved Astrometry and Photometry for the Luyten Catalog. II. Faint Stars and the Revised Catalog
We complete construction of a catalog containing improved astrometry andnew optical/infrared photometry for the vast majority of NLTT starslying in the overlap of regions covered by POSS I and by the secondincremental Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) release, approximately 44%of the sky. The epoch 2000 positions are typically accurate to 130 mas,the proper motions to 5.5 mas yr-1, and the V-J colors to0.25 mag. Relative proper motions of binary components are measured to 3mas yr-1. The false-identification rate is ~1% for11<~V<~18 and substantially less at brighter magnitudes. Theseimprovements permit the construction of a reduced proper-motion diagramthat, for the first time, allows one to classify NLTT stars intomain-sequence (MS) stars, subdwarfs (SDs), and white dwarfs (WDs). We inturn use this diagram to analyze the properties of both our catalog andthe NLTT catalog on which it is based. In sharp contrast to popularbelief, we find that NLTT incompleteness in the plane is almostcompletely concentrated in MS stars, and that SDs and WDs are detectedalmost uniformly over the sky δ>-33deg. Our catalogwill therefore provide a powerful tool to probe these populationsstatistically, as well as to reliably identify individual SDs and WDs.
| A Survey of Proper-Motion Stars. XVI. Orbital Solutions for 171 Single-lined Spectroscopic Binaries
We report 25,563 radial velocity measurements for 1359 single-linedstars in the Carney-Latham sample of 1464 stars selected for high propermotion. For 171 of these, we present spectroscopic orbital solutions. Wefind no obvious difference between the binary characteristics in thehalo and the disk populations. The observed frequency is the same, andthe period distributions are consistent with the hypothesis that the twosets of binaries were drawn from the same parent population. Thissuggests that metallicity in general, and radiative opacities inparticular, have little influence over the fragmentation process thatleads to short-period binaries. All the binaries with periods shorterthan 10 days have nearly circular orbits, while the binaries withperiods longer than 20 days exhibit a wide range of eccentricities and amedian value of 0.37. For the metal-poor high-velocity halo binaries inour sample, the transition from circular to eccentric orbits appears tooccur at about 20 days, supporting the conclusion that tidalcircularization on the main sequence is important for the oldestbinaries in the Galaxy. Some of the results presented here usedobservations made with the Multiple Mirror Telescope, a joint facilityof the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona.
| A survey of proper motion stars. 12: an expanded sample
We report new photometry and radial velocities for almost 500 stars fromthe Lowell Proper Motion Catalog. We combine these results with ourprior sample and rederive stellar temperatures based on the photometry,reddening, metallicities (using chi squared matching of our 22,500 lowSignal to Noise (S/N) high resolution echelle spectra with a grid ofsynthetic spectra), distances, space motions, and Galactic orbitalparameters for 1269 (kinematics) and 1261 (metallicity) of the 1464stars in the complete survey. The frequency of spectroscopic binariesfor the metal-poor ((m/H) less than or equal to -1.2) stars with periodsshorter than 3000 days is at least 15%. The spectroscopic binaryfrequency for metal-rich stars ((m/H) greater than -0.5) appears to belower, about 9%, but this may be a selection effect. We also discussspecial classes of stars, including treatment of the double-linedspectroscopic binaries, and identification of subgiants. Four possiblenew members of the class of field blue stragglers are noted. We pointout the detection of three possible new white dwarfs, six broad-lined(binary) systems, and discuss briefly the three already knownnitrogen-rich halo dwarfs. The primary result of this paper will beavailable on CD-ROM, in the form of a much larger table.
| High-tangential-velocity stars
Two lists of high tangential velocity (greater than 100 km/s) starscontained in the Lowell Northern Hemisphere proper motion surveycatalogue have been compiled, the stellar distances being inferred fromeither trigonometric or spectroscopic parallaxes. The information givenincludes equatorial coordinates, corrected photographic magnitudes,proper motions, trigonometric or spectroscopic parallaxes, and spectraltypes.
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