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Halo Star Streams in the Solar Neighborhood
We have assembled a sample of halo stars in the solar neighborhood tolook for halo substructure in velocity and angular momentum space. Oursample (231 stars) includes red giants, RR Lyrae variable stars, and redhorizontal branch stars within 2.5 kpc of the Sun with [Fe/H] less than-1.0. It was chosen to include stars with accurate distances, spacevelocities, and metallicities, as well as well-quantified errors. Withour data set, we confirm the existence of the streams found by Helmi andcoworkers, which we refer to as the H99 streams. These streams have adouble-peaked velocity distribution in the z-direction (out of theGalactic plane). We use the results of modeling of the H99 streams byHelmi and collaborators to test how one might use vz velocityinformation and radial velocity information to detect kinematicsubstructure in the halo. We find that detecting the H99 streams withradial velocities alone would require a large sample (e.g.,approximately 150 stars within 2 kpc of the Sun and within 20° ofthe Galactic poles). In addition, we use the velocity distribution ofthe H99 streams to estimate their age. From our model of the progenitorof the H99 streams, we determine that it was accreted between 6 and 9Gyr ago. The H99 streams have [α/Fe] abundances similar to otherhalo stars in the solar neighborhood, suggesting that the gas thatformed these stars were enriched mostly by Type II supernovae. We havealso discovered in angular momentum space two other possiblesubstructures, which we refer to as the retrograde and progradeoutliers. The retrograde outliers are likely to be halo substructure,but the prograde outliers are most likely part of the smooth halo. Theretrograde outliers have significant structure in the vφdirection and show a range of [α/Fe], with two having low[α/Fe] for their [Fe/H]. The fraction of substructure stars in oursample is between 5% and 7%. The methods presented in this paper can beused to exploit the kinematic information present in future largedatabases like RAVE, SDSS-II/SEGUE, and Gaia.
| Kinematics of Metal-poor Stars in the Galaxy. II. Proper Motions for a Large Nonkinematically Selected Sample
We present a revised catalog of 2106 Galactic stars, selected withoutkinematic bias and with available radial velocities, distance estimates,and metal abundances in the range -4.0<=[Fe/H]<=0.0. This updateof the 1995 Beers & Sommer-Larsen catalog includes newly derivedhomogeneous photometric distance estimates, revised radial velocitiesfor a number of stars with recently obtained high-resolution spectra,and refined metallicities for stars originally identified in the HKobjective-prism survey (which account for nearly half of the catalog)based on a recent recalibration. A subset of 1258 stars in this cataloghave available proper motions based on measurements obtained with theHipparcos astrometry satellite or taken from the updated AstrographicCatalogue (second epoch positions from either the Hubble Space TelescopeGuide Star Catalog or the Tycho Catalogue), the Yale/San Juan SouthernProper Motion Catalog 2.0, and the Lick Northern Proper Motion Catalog.Our present catalog includes 388 RR Lyrae variables (182 of which arenewly added), 38 variables of other types, and 1680 nonvariables, withdistances in the range 0.1 to 40 kpc.
| Ca II H and K Photometry on the UVBY System. III. The Metallicity Calibration for the Red Giants
New photometry on the uvby Ca system is presented for over 300 stars.When combined with previous data, the sample is used to calibrate themetallicity dependence of the hk index for cooler, evolved stars. Themetallicity scale is based upon the standardized merger of spectroscopicabundances from 38 studies since 1983, providing an overlap of 122evolved stars with the photometric catalog. The hk index producesreliable abundances for stars in the [Fe/H] range from -0.8 to -3.4,losing sensitivity among cooler stars due to saturation effects athigher [Fe/H], as expected.
| Kinematics of metal-poor stars in the galaxy
We discuss the kinematic properties of a sample of 1936 Galactic stars,selected without kinematic bias, and with abundances (Fe/H) is less thanor equal to -0.6. The stars selected for this study all have measuredradial velocities, and the majority have abundances determined fromspectroscopic or narrow-/intermediate-band photometric techniques. Incontrast to previous examinations of the kinematics of the metal-poorstars in the Galaxy, our sample contains large numbers of stars that arelocated at distances in excess of 1 kpc from the Galactic plane. Thus, amuch clearer picture of the nature of the metal-deficient populations inthe Galaxy can now be drawn.
| Population studies. II - Kinematics as a function of abundance and galactocentric position for (Fe/H) of -0.6 or less
A catalog is presented of some 1200 Galactic objects which have radialvelocities and (Fe/H) abundances of -0.6 or less. These data areanalyzed to yield information on the kinematic properties of the olderpopulations of the Galaxy and on the interdependence between kinematicsand abundance. It is found that the kinematics of the availablekinematically selected stars differ from those of the nonkinematicallyselected objects. No evidence is found for any significant difference inthe kinematic properties of the various halo subgroups, nor for anydependence of kinematics on abundance. While the rotation of the halo issmall at about 37 km/s for (Fe/H) of -1.2 or less, it rises quickly forhigher abundances to a value of about 160 km/s at (Fe/H) = 0.6. Objectsin the abundance range -0.9 to -0.6 appear to belong predominantly to apopulation possessing the kinematic characteristics of a thick disk. Theimplications of these findings for the suggestion that globular clustersbelong to the same population as the noncluster objects, for the originof the thick disk, and for the mass of the Galaxy are discussed.
| The kinematics of halo red giants
The present 337 radial velocities were obtained with typical accuraciesof 0.7 cm km/sec for 85 metal-poor field red giants, selected from thekinematically unbiased samples of Bond (1980) and Bidelman and MacConnel(1973). The multiply-observed stars suggest the field halo binaryfraction exceeds 10 percent. Using these velocities and those publishedby others, a sample of 174 red giants with Fe/H of not more than -1.5 isobtained. Their mean motion with respect to the local standard of restis -206 + or - 23 km/sec, and the velocity dispersions are sigma (R) of154 + or - 18 km/sec, sigma(theta) of 102 + or - 27 km/sec, andsigma(phi) of 107 + or - 15 km/sec. Using photometrically derivedabsolute magnitudes and published proper motions, orbital eccentricitiesare computed for 72 stars not already considered in a similar study ofsouthern stars by Norris et al. (1985). A few stars with e of less than0.4 are found.
| Population studies. I - The Bidelman-MacConnell 'weak-metal' stars
BRVI and DDO photometry are presented for 309 Bidelman-MacConnell'weak-metal' stars. Radial velocities are calculated for most of thestars having Fe/H abundances of no more than -0.8. The photometricobservations were carried out using the 0.6-meter and 1.0-metertelescopes of the Siding Spring Observatory. Photometric taxonomy wasused to classify the stars as dwarfs, giants, red-horizontal branchstars, and ultraviolet-bright stars, respectively. It is found that 35percent of the stars are giants; 50 percent are dwarfs; and 5 percentbelong to the red-horizontal branch group. The role of selection effectsin investigations of the formation of the Galaxy is discussed on thebasis of the photometric observations and the observational constraintsproposed by Eggen et al. (1962).
| Southern subdwarf photometry
UBV photometry and normalized UV excesses are reported for 176 southernmetal-poor stars selected from the objective-prism survey of Bidelmanand MacConnell (1973) as well as 49 other metal-deficient starsidentified in other surveys. Photometry is also presented for 32 otherstars lying near the 225 program stars (although not explicitlyidentified as such in the text, the program stars are apparentlysubdwarfs and subdwarf candidates). Previously determined spectral typesand degrees of line weakening are given for the 225 stars, andmetallicities are estimated on the basis of the degrees of lineweakening. It is noted that 33 F and G stars with extreme meannormalized UV excesses of approximately 0.22 mag have a mean Fe/H valueof -1.4 and probably represent halo subdwarfs, while 82 F and G starswith moderate UV excesses are mostly old disk stars.
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