Paper detail

Galactic Archaeology with RAVE: Clues to the Formation of the Thick Disk

I present an analysis of ~13000 stars from RAVE Data Release 4 (DR4) to better understand the formation of the thick disk. The stars I consider are mostly within 1 kpc of the Sun. Based on a Monte-Carlo analysis of the data and comparison with a toy model, I suggest the thick disk formed fairly rapidly when [Mg/Fe] ${\approx}$0.2-0.3. We consider an origin via direct accretion unlikely as the thick disk is fast-rotating and fairly metal-rich for its age. As internal disk heating can not easily reach the high observed velocity dispersions and would likely be more gradual, it also appears implausible. A very early formation of the thick disk (e.g. from star formation in the collapsing primordial gas cloud of the Milky Way) appears unlikely given it would require [Mg/Fe] ${\geq}$ 0.4 at the time the thick disk formed. An origin via tidal interaction with another galaxy is one of the few remaining possibilities. My proposed explanation for the nature of the event which formed the thick disk is a close flyby of Andromeda, whose orbital dynamics in MOND are consistent with my estimate that the event occurred 7-11 Gyr ago. This leads to reasonable thick disk velocity dispersions. It will be important to determine whether the event heated the outer regions of the thin disk uniformly or if substantial portions of it were left largely unaffected. This may distinguish between models (like mine) involving a single close encounter and models with multiple encounters (as common in mergers). The main limiting factor at present seems to be the accuracy of elemental abundances and lack of direct observations at different galactocentric radii to the Sun.