Fiorenzo Vincenzo
The Fall of a Giant. Chemical evolution of Enceladus, alias the Gaia Sausage
Vincenzo, Fiorenzo; Spitoni, Emanuele; Calura, Francesco; Matteucci, Francesca; Silva Aguirre, Victor; Miglio, Andrea; Cescutti, Gabriele
Authors
Emanuele Spitoni
Francesco Calura
Francesca Matteucci
Victor Silva Aguirre
Andrea Miglio
Gabriele Cescutti
Abstract
We present the first chemical evolution model for Enceladus, alias the Gaia Sausage, to investigate the star formation history of one of the most massive satellites accreted by the Milky Way during a major merger event. Our best chemical evolution model for Enceladus nicely fits the observed stellar [$\alpha$/Fe]-[Fe/H] chemical abundance trends, and reproduces the observed stellar metallicity distribution function, by assuming low star formation efficiency, fast infall time scale, and mild outflow intensity. We predict a median age for Enceladus stars $12.33^{+0.92}_{-1.36}$ Gyr, and - at the time of the merger with our Galaxy ($\approx10$ Gyr ago from Helmi et al.) - we predict for Enceladus a total stellar mass $M_{\star} \approx 5 \times 10^{9}\,\text{M}_{\odot}$. By looking at the predictions of our best model, we discuss that merger events between the Galaxy and systems like Enceladus may have inhibited the gas accretion onto the Galaxy disc at high redshifts, heating up the gas in the halo. This scenario could explain the extended period of quenching in the star formation activity of our Galaxy about 10 Gyr ago, which is predicted by Milky Way chemical evolution models, in order to reproduce the observed bimodality in [$\alpha$/Fe]-[Fe/H] between thick- and thin-disc stars.
Citation
Vincenzo, F., Spitoni, E., Calura, F., Matteucci, F., Silva Aguirre, V., Miglio, A., & Cescutti, G. (2019). The Fall of a Giant. Chemical evolution of Enceladus, alias the Gaia Sausage. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 487(1), L47–L52. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slz070
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | May 7, 2019 |
Online Publication Date | May 14, 2019 |
Publication Date | 2019-07 |
Deposit Date | Mar 12, 2022 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 28, 2022 |
Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters |
Print ISSN | 1745-3933 |
Electronic ISSN | 1745-3933 |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 487 |
Issue | 1 |
Pages | L47–L52 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slz070 |
Keywords | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3946259 |
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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters ©: 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
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