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ABSTRACT Anomalously high nitrogen-to-oxygen abundance ratios [N/O] are observed in globular clusters (GCs), among the field stars of the Milky Way (MW), and even in the gas in a z ≈ 11 galaxy. Using data from the APOGEE Data Release 17 and the Gaia Data Release 3, we present several independent lines of evidence that most of the MW’s high-[N/O] stars were born in situ in massive bound clusters during the early, pre-disc evolution of the Galaxy. Specifically, we show that distributions of metallicity [Fe/H], energy, the angular momentum Lz, and distance of the low-metallicity high-[N/O] stars match the corresponding distributions of stars of the Aurora population and of the in situ GCs. We also show that the fraction of in situ field high-[N/O] stars, fN/O, increases rapidly with decreasing metallicity. During epochs when metallicity evolves from $$\rm [Fe/H]=-1.5$$ to $$\rm [Fe/H]=-0.9$$, the Galaxy spins up and transitions from a turbulent Aurora state to a coherently rotating disc. This transformation is accompanied by many qualitative changes. In particular, we show that high N/O abundances similar to those observed in GN-z11 were common before the spin-up ($$\rm [Fe/H]\lesssim -1.5$$) when up to $$\approx 50~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}-70~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$$ of the in situ stars formed in massive bound clusters. The dramatic drop of fN/O at $$\rm [Fe/H]\gtrsim -0.9$$ indicates that after the disc emerges the fraction of stars forming in massive bound clusters decreases by two orders of magnitude.
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In-situ versus accreted Milky Way globular clusters: a new classification method and implications for cluster formation
ABSTRACT We present a new scheme for the classification of the in-situ and accreted globular clusters (GCs). The scheme uses total energy E and z-component of the orbital angular momentum and is calibrated using the [Al/Fe] abundance ratio. We demonstrate that this classification results in two GC populations with distinct spatial, kinematic, and chemical abundance distributions. The in-situ GCs are distributed within the central 10 kpc of the Galaxy in a flattened configuration aligned with the Milky Way (MW) disc, while the accreted GCs have a wide distribution of distances and a spatial distribution close to spherical. In-situ and accreted GCs have different $$\rm [Fe/H]$$ distributions with the well-known bimodality present only in the metallicity distribution of the in-situ GCs. Furthermore, the accreted and in-situ GCs are well separated in the plane of $$\rm [Al/Fe]-[Mg/Fe]$$ abundance ratios and follow distinct sequences in the age–$$\rm [Fe/H]$$ plane. The in-situ GCs in our classification show a clear disc spin-up signature – the increase of median Vϕ at metallicities −1.3 < [Fe/H] < −1 similar to the spin-up in the in-situ field stars. This signature signals the MW’s disc formation, which occurred ≈11.7−12.7 Gyr ago (or at z ≈ 3.1−5.3) according to in-situ GC ages. In-situ GCs with metallicities of $$\rm [Fe/H]\gtrsim -1.3$$ were thus born in the MW disc, while lower metallicity in-situ GCs were born during early, turbulent, pre-disc stages of the evolution of the Galaxy and are part of its Aurora stellar component.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1911111
- PAR ID:
- 10561228
- Editor(s):
- NA
- Publisher / Repository:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Edition / Version:
- 1
- Volume:
- 528
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0035-8711
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 3198 to 3216
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad3920
