On the local stellar populations

Abstract

We present a study of the local stellar populations from a volume-complete all-sky survey of the about 500 bright stars with distances less than 25 pc and down to main-sequence effective temperatures T-eff >= 5300 K. The sample is dominated by a 93 per cent fraction of Population I stars, only 22 sources (5 per cent) are Population II stars, and 9 sources (2 per cent) are intermediate-disc stars. No source belongs to the halo. By following the mass of the stars instead of their light, the resulting subset of 136 long-lived stars distributes as 22 (16.2 per cent): 6 (4.4 per cent): 108 (79.4 per cent) for the Population II: intermediate disc: Population I, respectively. Along with the much larger scaleheight reached by Population II, this unbiased census of long-lived stars provides plain evidence for a starburst epoch in the early Milky Way, with the formation of a massive, rotationally supported, and dark Population II. The same conclusion arises from the substantial early chemical enrichment levels, exemplified here by the elements magnesium and iron, as it arises also from the local Population II white dwarfs. The kinematics, metallicity distribution functions, star formation rates, age-metallicity relations, the inventory of young stars, and the occurrence of blue straggler stars are discussed. A potentially new aspect of the survey is the possibility for substructure among the local Population II stars that may further subdivide into metal-poor and metal-rich sources.