No abstract

The Galactic Anticenter Stellar Structure (GASS) has been identified with excess surface densities of field stars in several large area sky surveys, and with an unusual, string-like grouping of five globular clusters. At least two of these are diffuse, young "transitional" clusters between open and globular types. Here we call attention to the fact that four younger open or transitional clusters extend the previously identified, string-like cluster grouping, with at least one having a radial velocity consistent with the previously found GASS velocity-longitude trend. All nine clusters lie close to a plane tipped 17 • to the Galactic plane. This planar orientation is used to forage for additional potential cluster members in the inner Galaxy, and a number are found along the same plane and string-like sequence, including almost all fifteen known outer, old open clusters. Tidal accretion of a dwarf satellite galaxy on a low inclination orbit -perhaps the GASS system -appears to be a plausible explanation for the origin of the outer, old open and transitional clusters of the Milky Way. We use these clusters to explore the age-metallicity relation of the putative accreted GASS progenitor. Finally, we provide the first radial velocity of a star in the cluster BH 176 and discuss its implications.

The star formation rate history of the Milky Way is derived using the chromospheric age distribution for 552 stars in the solar neighborhood. The stars' sample birth sites are distributed over a very large range of distances because of orbital diffusion and so give an estimate of the global star formation rate history. The derivation incorporates the metallicity dependence of chromospheric emission at a given age and corrections to account for incompleteness, scale height-age correlations, and stellar evolutionary effects. We find fluctuations in the global star formation rate with amplitudes greater than a factor of 2-3 on timescales less than 0.2-1 Gyr. The actual history is likely to be more bursty than found here because of the smearing effect of age uncertainties. There is some evidence for a slow secular increase in the star formation rate, perhaps a record of the accumulation history of our Galaxy. A smooth, nearly constant star formation rate history is strongly ruled out, confirming the result first discovered by Barry using a smaller sample and a different age calibration. This result suggests that galaxies can fluctuate coherently on large scales.

Context. The evolution of massive stars depends on several physical processes and parameters. Metallicity and rotation are among the most important, but their quantitative effects are not well understood. Aims. To complement our earlier study on main-sequence stars, we study the evolutionary and physical properties of evolved O stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We focus in particular on their surface abundances to further investigate the efficiency of rotational mixing as a function of age, rotation, and global metallicity. Methods. We analysed the UV and optical spectra of 13 SMC O-type giants and supergiants using the stellar atmosphere code CMFGEN to derive photospheric and wind properties. We compared the inferred properties to theoretical predictions from evolution models. For a more comprehensive analysis, we interpret the results together with those we previously obtained for O-type dwarfs. Results. Most dwarfs of our sample lie in the early phases of the main sequence. For a given initial mass, giants are farther along the evolutionary tracks, which confirms that they are indeed more evolved than dwarfs. Supergiants have higher initial masses and are located past the terminal-age main-sequence in each diagram. We find no clear trend of a mass discrepancy, regardless of the diagram that was used to estimate the evolutionary mass. Surface CNO abundances are consistent with nucleosynthesis from the CNO cycle. Comparisons to theoretical predictions reveal that the initial mixture is important when the observed trends in the N/C versus N/O diagram are to be reproduced. A trend for stronger chemical evolution for more evolved objects is observed. Above about 30 M⊙, more massive stars are on average more chemically enriched at a given evolutionary phase. Below 30 M⊙, the trend vanishes. This is qualitatively consistent with evolutionary models. A principal component analysis of the abundance ratios for the whole (dwarfs and evolved stars) sample supports the theoretical prediction that massive stars at low metallicity are more chemically processed than their Galactic counterparts. Finally, models including rotation generally reproduce the surface abundances and rotation rates when different initial rotational velocities are considered. Nevertheless, for some objects, a stronger braking and/or more efficient mixing is required.