The Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS) I: tracing the kinematics of metal-poor stars in the Galactic bulge

Arentsen, A.; Starkenburg, E.; Martin, N. F.; Hill, V.; Ibata, R.; Kunder, A.; Schultheis, M.; Venn, K. A.; Zucker, D. B.; Aguado, D.; Carlberg, R.; González Hernández, J. I.; Lardo, C.; Longeard, N.; Malhan, K.; Navarro, J. F.; Sánchez-Janssen, R.; Sestito, F.; Thomas, G.; Youakim, K.; Lewis, G. F.; Simpson, J. D.; Wan, Z.
Bibliographical reference

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Advertised on:
1
2020
Number of authors
23
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
55
Refereed citations
45
Description
Our Galaxy is known to contain a central boxy/peanut-shaped bulge, yet the importance of a classical, pressure-supported component within the central part of the Milky Way is still being debated. It should be most visible at low metallicity, a regime that has not yet been studied in detail. Using metallicity-sensitive narrow-band photometry, the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS) has collected a large sample of metal-poor ({[Fe/H]} < -1.0) stars in the inner Galaxy to address this open question. We use PIGS to trace the metal-poor inner Galaxy kinematics as function of metallicity for the first time. We find that the rotational signal decreases with decreasing [Fe/H] , until it becomes negligible for the most metal-poor stars. Additionally, the velocity dispersion increases with decreasing metallicity for -3.0 < [Fe/H] < -0.5, with a gradient of -44 ± 4 km s-1 dex-1. These observations may signal a transition between Galactic components of different metallicities and kinematics, a different mapping on to the boxy/peanut-shaped bulge for former disc stars of different metallicities and/or the secular dynamical and gravitational influence of the bar on the pressure-supported component. Our results provide strong constraints on models that attempt to explain the properties of the inner Galaxy.
Type