Kinematics and Metallicities in the Bootes III Stellar Overdensity: a Disrupted Dwarf Galaxy?

Abstract

We report the results of a spectroscopic study of the Bootes III (BooIII) stellar overdensity carried out with the Hectospec multifiber spectrograph on the MMT telescope. Radial velocities have been measured for 193 BooIII candidate stars selected to have magnitudes and colors consistent with its upper main sequence and lower red giant branch, as well as a number of horizontal branch candidates. From 20 identified candidate BooIII members, we measure a systemic velocity of V_sun=197.5+-3.8 km/s and a velocity dispersion of sigma_o=14.0+-3.2 km/s. We use the somewhat large velocity dispersion and the implied highly radial orbit, along with morphological evidence from Grillmair (2009) and stellar abundances, to argue that BooIII is likely the first known object observed in a transitional state between being a bound dwarf galaxy and a completely unbound tidal stream.

Accepted to ApJL. 14 pages, 4 figures, preprint format -- updated to reflect minor changes to text

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