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The chemical evolution of fluorine is investigated in a sample of Milky Way red giant stars that span a significant range in metallicity from [Fe/H] ∼ −1.3 to 0.0 dex. Fluorine abundances are derived from vibration-rotation lines of HF in high-resolution infrared spectra near 2.335 μm. The red giants are members of the thin and thick disk/halo, with two stars being likely members of the outer disk Monoceros overdensity. At lower metallicities, with [Fe/H] < −0.4 to −0.5, the abundance of F varies as a primary element with respect to the Fe abundance, with a constant subsolar value of [F/Fe] ∼ −0.3 to −0.4 dex. At larger metallicities, however, [F/Fe] increases rapidly with [Fe/H] and displays a near-secondary behavior with respect to Fe. Comparisons with various models of chemical evolution suggest that in the low-metallicity regime (dominated here by thick-disk stars), a primary evolution of 19F with Fe, with a subsolar [F/Fe] value that roughly matches the observed plateau, can be reproduced by a model incorporating neutrino nucleosynthesis in the aftermath of the core collapse in Type II supernovae. A primary behavior for [F/Fe] at low metallicity is also observed for a model including rapidly rotating low-metallicity massive stars, but this overproduces [F/Fe] at low metallicity. The thick-disk red giants in our sample span a large range of galactocentric distance (Rg ∼ 6–13.7 kpc) yet display a roughly constant value of [F/Fe], indicating a very flat gradient (with a slope of 0.02 ± 0.03 dex kpc−1) of this elemental ratio over a significant portion of the Galaxy having > 300 pc away from the Galaxy midplane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We map the trends of elemental abundance ratios across the Galactic disk, spanning and midplane distance , for 15 elements in a sample of 20,485 stars measured by the SDSS/APOGEE survey (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni). Adopting Mg rather than Fe as our reference element, and separating stars into two populations based on [Fe/Mg], we find that the median trends of [X/Mg] versus [Mg/H] in each population are nearly independent of location in the Galaxy. The full multi-element cartography can be summarized by combining these nearly universal median sequences with our measured metallicity distribution functions and the relative proportions of the low-[Fe/Mg] (high-α) and high-[Fe/Mg] (low-α) populations, which depend strongly on R and . We interpret the median sequences with a semi-empirical “two-process” model that describes both the ratio of core collapse and Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) contributions to each element and the metallicity dependence of the supernova yields. These observationally inferred trends can provide strong tests of supernova nucleosynthesis calculations. Our results lead to a relatively simple picture of abundance ratio variations in the Milky Way, in which the trends at any location can be described as the sum of two components with relative contributions that change systematically and smoothly across the Galaxy. Deviations from this picture and future extensions to other elements can provide further insights into the physics of stellar nucleosynthesis and unusual events in the Galaxy’s history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SDSS-IV Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey provides precise chemical abundances of 18 chemical elements for ∼176,000 red giant stars distributed over much of the Milky Way Galaxy (MW), and includes observations of the core of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr). The APOGEE chemical abundance patterns of Sgr have revealed that it is chemically distinct from the MW in most chemical elements. We employ a k-means clustering algorithm to six-dimensional chemical space defined by [(C+N)/Fe], [O/Fe], [Mg/Fe], [Al/Fe], [Mn/Fe], and [Ni/Fe] to identify 62 MW stars in the APOGEE sample that have Sgr-like chemical abundances. Of the 62 stars, 35 have Gaia kinematics and positions consistent with those predicted by N-body simulations of the Sgr stream, and are likely stars that have been stripped from Sgr during the last two pericenter passages (<2 Gyr ago). Another 20 of the 62 stars exhibit chemical abundances indistinguishable from the Sgr stream stars, but are on highly eccentric orbits with median rapo ∼ 25 kpc. These stars are likely the “accreted” halo population thought to be the result of a separate merger with the MW 8–11 Gyr ago. We also find one hypervelocity star candidate. We conclude that Sgr was enriched to [Fe/H] ∼ −0.2 before its most recent pericenter passage. If the “accreted halo” population is from one major accretion event, then this progenitor galaxy was enriched to at least [Fe/H] ∼ −0.6, and had a similar star formation history to Sgr before merging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stars of a common origin are thought to have similar, if not nearly identical, chemistry. Chemical tagging seeks to exploit this fact to identify Milky Way subpopulations through their unique chemical fingerprints. In this work, we compare the chemical abundances of dwarf stars in wide binaries to test the abundance consistency of stars of a common origin. Our sample of 31 wide binaries is identified from a catalog produced by cross-matching Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment spectroscopic survey (APOGEE) stars with UCAC5 astrometry, and we confirm the fidelity of this sample with precision parallaxes from Gaia DR2. For as many as 14 separate elements, we compare the abundances between components of our wide binaries, finding they have very similar chemistry (typically within 0.1 dex). This level of consistency is more similar than can be expected from stars with different origins (which show typical abundance differences of 0.3–0.4 dex within our sample). For the best-measured elements, Fe, Si, K, Ca, Mn, and Ni, these differences are reduced to 0.05–0.08 dex when selecting pairs of dwarf stars with similar temperatures. Our results suggest that APOGEE dwarf stars may currently be used for chemical tagging at the level of ∼0.1 dex or at the level of ∼0.05 dex when restricting for the best-measured elements in stars of similar temperatures. Larger wide binary catalogs may provide calibration sets, in complement to open cluster samples, for ongoing spectroscopic surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find two chemically distinct populations separated relatively cleanly in the [Fe/H]–[Mg/Fe] plane, but also distinguished in other chemical planes, among metal-poor stars (primarily with metallicities ) observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) and analyzed for Data Release 13 (DR13) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These two stellar populations show the most significant differences in their [X/Fe] ratios for the α-elements, C+N, Al, and Ni. In addition to these populations having differing chemistry, the low metallicity high-Mg population (which we denote “the HMg population”) exhibits a significant net Galactic rotation, whereas the low-Mg population (or “the LMg population”) has halo-like kinematics with little to no net rotation. Based on its properties, the origin of the LMg population is likely an accreted population of stars. The HMg population shows chemistry (and to an extent kinematics) similar to the thick disk, and is likely associated with in situ formation. The distinction between the LMg and HMg populations mimics the differences between the populations of low- and high-α halo stars found in previous studies, suggesting that these are samples of the same two populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation processes that led to the current Galactic stellar halo are still under debate. Previous studies have provided evidence for different stellar populations in terms of elemental abundances and kinematics, pointing to different chemical and star formation histories (SFHs). In the present work, we explore, over a broader range in metallicity (), the two stellar populations detected in the first paper of this series from metal-poor stars in DR13 of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). We aim to infer signatures of the initial mass function (IMF) and the SFH from the two α-to-iron versus iron abundance chemical trends for the most APOGEE-reliable α-elements (O, Mg, Si, and Ca). Using simple chemical-evolution models, we infer the upper mass limit (Mup) for the IMF and the star formation rate, and its duration for each population. Compared with the low-α population, we obtain a more intense and longer-lived SFH, and a top-heavier IMF for the high-α population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We utilize elemental-abundance information for Galactic red giant stars in five open clusters (NGC 7789, NGC 6819, M67, NGC 188, and NGC 6791) from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) DR13 data set to age-date the chemical evolution of the high- and low-α element sequences of the Milky Way (MW). Key to this time-stamping is the cluster NGC 6791, whose stellar members have mean abundances that place it in the high-α, high-[Fe/H] region of the [α/Fe]–[Fe/H] plane. Based on the cluster’s age (∼8 Gyr), Galactocentric radius, and height above the Galactic plane, as well as comparable chemistry reported for APOGEE stars in Baade’s Window, we suggest that the two most likely origins for NGC 6791 are as an original part of the thick disk, or as a former member of the Galactic bulge. Moreover, because NGC 6791 lies at the high-metallicity end ([Fe/H] ∼ 0.4) of the high-α sequence, the age of NGC 6791 places a limit on the youngest age of stars in the high-metallicity, high-α sequence for the cluster’s parent population (i.e., either the bulge or the disk). In a similar way, we can also use the age and chemistry of NGC 188 to set a limit of ∼7 Gyr on the oldest age of the low-α sequence of the MW. Therefore, NGC 6791 and NGC 188 are potentially a pair of star clusters that bracket both the timing and the duration of an important transition point in the chemical history of the MW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]