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Evidence for the Hierarchical Formation of the Galactic Spheroid

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© 2000. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
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1 California Institute of Technology, Mail Stop 105-24, Pasadena, CA 91125

2 Observatories of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101

3 Department of Astronomy and Physics, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, NS B3H 3C3, Canada; and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Hilo, HI 96720

4 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550; and Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile

5 Sherman M. Fairchild Fellow

6 Hubble Fellow

Dates

Received 1999 September 17
Accepted 1999 November 23

Citation

Patrick Côté et al 2000 ApJ 533 869

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1086/308709

Keywords

galaxies: halos; galaxies: spiral; Galaxy: evolution; Galaxy: halo; Galaxy: structure; globular clusters: general

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0004-637X/533/2/869

Abstract

The possibility that the Galactic spheroid was assembled from isolated, chemically distinct proto-Galactic fragments is investigated using a Monte Carlo technique designed to simulate the chemical evolution of the Galaxy in hierarchical formation scenarios which involve no gas dissipation. By comparing the observed and simulated metallicity distributions of Galactic globular clusters and halo field stars, we estimate the level of fragmentation in the collapsing proto-Galaxy. Although the formation process is highly stochastic, the simulations frequently show good agreement with the observed metallicity distributions, provided the luminosity function of proto-Galactic fragments had the form dN ∝ Lα dL, where α ~ -2. While this steep slope is strongly at odds with the presently observed luminosity function of the Local Group, it is in close agreement with the predictions of semianalytic and numerical models of hierarchical galaxy formation. We discuss a number of possible explanations for this discrepancy. These simulations suggest that the Galactic halo and its globular cluster system were assembled via the accretion and disruption of ~103 metal-poor, proto-Galactic fragments by the dominant building block: a protobulge whose own metal-rich globular clusters system has been preferentially eroded by dynamical processes. This formation scenario may provide a simple explanation for the different shapes of the Galactic globular cluster and halo star metallicity distributions. Based on the similar properties of globular clusters belonging to spiral and giant elliptical galaxies, we argue that the same process (e.g., hierarchical growth involving little gas dissipation) is responsible for the formation of both giant elliptical galaxies and the bulge-halo components of spiral galaxies.

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