Abstract
A period of quenching between the formation of the thick and thin disks of the Milky Way has been recently proposed to explain the observed age-[{\alpha}/Fe] distribution of stars in the solar neighbourhood. However, robust constraints on stellar ages are currently available for only a limited number of stars. The all-sky survey TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) will observe the brightest stars in the sky and thus can be used to investigate the age distributions of stars in these components of the Galaxy via asteroseismology, where previously this has been difficult using other techniques. The aim of this preliminary study was to determine whether TESS will be able to provide evidence for quenching periods during the star formation history of the Milky Way. Using a population synthesis code, we produced populations based on various stellar formation history models and limited the analysis to red-giant-branch stars. We investigated the mass-Galactic-disk-height distributions, where stellar mass was used as an age proxy, to test for whether periods of quenching can be observed by TESS. We found that even with the addition of 15% noise to the inferred masses, it will be possible for TESS to find evidence for/against quenching periods suggested in the literature (e.g. between 7 and 9 Gyr ago), therefore providing stringent constraints on the formation and evolution of the Milky Way.
Highlights
Uncertainties in the age distribution of stars in the solar neighbourhood have far limited the determination of the star formation history (SFH) of the local Galactic disk [1], one of the key constraints to test competing models of formation and evolution of the Milky Way
In this study we investigated whether the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission [2] will be able to make a substantial contribution to the field of Galactic archaeology by providing evidence for quenching periods during the formation of the Galaxy
Since the stellar populations of the Galactic components are primarily discernible with height from the Galactic plane, z, we expect the age-z distributions would differ for each star formation rate (SFR) model
Summary
Uncertainties in the age distribution of stars in the solar neighbourhood have far limited the determination of the star formation history (SFH) of the local Galactic disk [1], one of the key constraints to test competing models of formation and evolution of the Milky Way. It is hoped that this barrier may be overcome with the reception of all-sky asteroseismic data. In this study we investigated whether the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission [2] will be able to make a substantial contribution to the field of Galactic archaeology by providing evidence for quenching periods during the formation of the Galaxy. We used the TRILEGAL code (TRIdimensional modeL of thE GALaxy) [3] to generate a set of synthetic stellar populations based on various SFH models, and considered only red-giant-branch (RGB) stars which would display oscillations detectable by TESS
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