The APM survey for cool carbon stars in the Galactic halo – I |
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| Authors: | Totten & Irwin |
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| Institution: | Department of Pure and Applied Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN,;Royal Greenwich Observatory, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0EZ |
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| Abstract: | A by-product of the APM high-redshift quasar survey was the discovery of several distant (20–100 kpc) N-type carbon stars at high galactic latitude. Following on from this, we have started a systematic all-sky survey at galactic latitudes ⊢ b ⊢>30° to find further examples of these rare objects, and we report here on the results from the first season of follow-up spectroscopy. Faint, high-latitude carbon (FHLC) giants make excellent probes of the kinematic structure of the outer Galactic halo. Therefore, in addition to detailed spectrophotometry covering a wide wavelength range, we have obtained high-resolution (∼1 Å) spectra centred on the CN bands at ∼8000 Å, and have derived accurate (≲10 km s−1) radial velocities for the known FHLC stars. From the initial phase of our survey covering ≈6500 deg2, we find a surface density of faint N-type carbon stars in the halo of ≈1 per 200 deg2, roughly a factor of 4 less than the surface density of CH-type carbon stars in the halo. Intermediate-age, N-type carbon stars seem unlikely to have formed in the halo in isolation from other star-forming regions, and one possibility that we are investigating is that they either arise from the disruption of tidally captured dwarf satellite galaxies or are a manifestation of the long-sought optical component of the Magellanic Stream. |
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| Keywords: | surveys stars: carbon Galaxy: formation Galaxy: halo |
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