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Abstract Using a grid of empirically calibrated synthetic spectra developed in our previous study, we construct an all-sky 3D extinction map from the large collection of low-resolution XP spectra in Gaia DR3. Along each line of sight, with an area ranging from 0.2 to 13.4 deg², we determine both the reddening and metallicity of main-sequence stars and model the foreground extinction up to approximately 3 kpc from the Sun. Furthermore, we explore variations in the total-to-selective extinction ratio in our parameter search and identify its mean systematic change across diverse cloud environments in both hemispheres. In regions outside the densest parts of the clouds, our reddening estimates are validated through comparisons with previous reddening maps. However, a notable discrepancy arises in comparison to other independent work based on XP spectra, which can be attributed to systematic offsets in their metallicity estimates. On the other hand, our metallicity scale exhibits reasonable agreement with the high-resolution spectroscopic abundance scale. We also assess the accuracy of the XP spectra by applying our calibrated models, and we confirm an increasing trend of flux overestimation at shorter wavelengths below 400 nm. 

Abstract We continue our series of papers on phase-space distributions of stars in the Milky Way based on photometrically derived metallicities and Gaia astrometry, with a focus on the halo−disk interface in the local volume. To exploit various photometric databases, we develop a method of empirically calibrating synthetic stellar spectra based on a comparison with observations of stellar sequences and individual stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the SkyMapper Sky Survey, and the Pan-STARRS1 surveys, overcoming band-specific corrections employed in our previous work. In addition, photometric zero-point corrections are derived to provide an internally consistent photometric system with a spatially uniform metallicity zero-point. Using our phase-space diagrams, we find a remarkably narrow sequence in the rotational velocity ( v ϕ ) versus metallicity ([Fe/H]) space for a sample of high proper-motion stars (>25 mas yr −1 ), which runs along Gaia Sausage/Enceladus (GSE) and the Splash substructures and is linked to the disk, spanning nearly 2 dex in [Fe/H]. Notably, a rapid increase of v ϕ from a nearly zero net rotation to ∼180 km s −1 in a narrow metallicity interval (−0.6 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲ −0.4) suggests that some of these stars emerged quickly on a short gas-depletion timescale. Through measurements of a scale height and length, we argue that these stars are distinct from those heated dynamically by mergers. This chain of high proper-motion stars provides additional support for recent discoveries suggesting that a starburst took place when the young Milky Way encountered the gas-rich GSE progenitor, which eventually led to the settling of metal-enriched gas onto the disk. 

Abstract We present a chemodynamical analysis of 11,562 metal-rich, high-eccentricity halo-like main-sequence stars, which have been referred to as the Splash or Splashed Disk, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope. When divided into two groups, a low-[ α /Fe] population (LAP) and a high-[ α /Fe] population (HAP), based on kinematics and chemistry, we find that they exhibit very distinct properties, indicative of different origins. From a detailed analysis of their orbital inclinations, we suggest that the HAP arises from a large fraction (∼90%) of heated disk stars and a small fraction (∼10%) of in situ stars from a starburst population, likely induced by interaction of the Milky Way with the Gaia-Sausage/Enceladus (GSE) or another early merger. The LAP comprises about half accreted stars from the GSE and half formed by the GSE-induced starburst. Our findings further imply that the Splash stars in our sample originated from at least three different mechanisms: accretion, disk heating, and a merger-induced starburst.