The Galactic metallicity gradient shown by open clusters in the light of radial migration


Creative Commons License

Netopil M., Oralhan C. D. S., ÇAKMAK H., Michel R., KARATAŞ Y.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol.509, no.1, pp.421-439, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 509 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2022
  • Doi Number: 10.1093/mnras/stab2961
  • Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Aerospace Database, Applied Science & Technology Source, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, INSPEC, Metadex, zbMATH, DIALNET, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.421-439
  • Keywords: techniques: photometric, techniques: spectroscopic, Galaxy: abundances, open clusters and associations: general, CCD UBV(RI)(KC) PHOTOMETRY, OLD OPEN CLUSTERS, CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES, SPIRAL STRUCTURE, PROPER MOTIONS, MAIN-SEQUENCE, MILKY-WAY, GAIA DR2, EVOLUTION, STARS
  • Kayseri University Affiliated: No

Abstract

© 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.During the last years and decades, several individual studies and large-scale spectroscopic surveys significantly improved our knowledge of the Galactic metallicity distribution based on open clusters. The availability of Gaia data provided a further step forward in our knowledge. However, still some open issues remain, for example, the influence of radial migration on the interpretation of the observed gradients. We used spectroscopic metallicities from individual studies and from the APOGEE survey to compile a sample of 136 open clusters, with a membership verification based on Gaia DR2. Additionally, we present photometric metallicity estimates of 14 open clusters in a somewhat outer Galactic region. Eight age groups allow us to study the evolution of the metallicity gradient in detail, showing within the errors an almost constant gradient of about -0.06 dex kpc-1. Furtheore, using the derived gradients and an analysis of the individual objects, we estimate a mean migration rate of 1 kpc Gyr-1 for objects up to about 2 Gyr. Here, the change of the guiding radius is clearly the main contributor. For older and dynamically hotter objects up to 6 Gyr we infer a lower migration rate of up to 0.5 kpc Gyr-1. The influence of epicyclic excursions increases with age and contributes already about 1 kpc to the total migration distance after 6 Gyr. A comparison of our results with available models shows good agreement. However, there is still a lack of a suitable coverage of older objects, future studies are still needed to provide a better sampling in this respect.