Published 2024 | Version v1
Journal article

A Perspective on the Milky Way Bulge Bar as Seen from the Neutron-capture Elements Cerium and Neodymium with APOGEE

Description

This study probes the chemical abundances of the neutron-capture elements cerium and neodymium in the inner Milky Way from an analysis of a sample of ∼2000 stars in the Galactic bulge bar spatially contained within |X Gal | < 5 kpc, |Y Gal | < 3.5 kpc, and |Z Gal | < 1 kpc, and spanning metallicities between -2.0  [Fe/H]  +0.5. We classify the sample stars into low-or high-[Mg/Fe] populations and find that, in general, values of [Ce/Fe] and [Nd/Fe] increase as the metallicity decreases for the low-and high-[Mg/Fe] populations. Ce abundances show a more complex variation across the metallicity range of our bulge-bar sample when compared to Nd, with the r-process dominating the production of neutron-capture elements in the high-[Mg/Fe] population ([Ce/Nd] < 0.0). We find a spatial chemical dependence of Ce and Nd abundances for our sample of bulge-bar stars, with low-and high-[Mg/Fe] populations displaying a distinct abundance distribution. In the region close to the center of the MW, the low-[Mg/Fe] population is dominated by stars with low [Ce/Fe], [Ce/Mg], [Nd/Mg], [Nd/Fe], and [Ce/Nd] ratios. The low [Ce/Nd] ratio indicates a significant contribution in this central region from r-process yields for the low-[Mg/Fe] population. The chemical pattern of the most metal-poor stars in our sample suggests an early chemical enrichment of the bulge dominated by yields from corecollapse supernovae and r-process astrophysical sites, such as magnetorotational supernovae.

Abstract

International audience

Additional details

Identifiers

URL
https://hal.science/hal-04795510
URN
urn:oai:HAL:hal-04795510v1