Identifying High Metallicity M Giants at Intragroup Distances with SDSS

Abstract

Tidal stripping and three-body interactions with the central supermassive black hole may eject stars from the Milky Way. These stars would comprise a set of `intragroup' stars that trace the past history of interactions in our galactic neighborhood. Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7, we identify candidate solar metallicity red giant intragroup stars using color cuts that are designed to exclude nearby M and L dwarfs. We present 677 intragroup candidates that are selected between 300 kpc and 2 Mpc, and are either the reddest intragroup candidates (M7-M10) or are L dwarfs at larger distances than previously detected.

8 pages, 6 figures, 1 table (for full version, see http://astro.phy.vanderbilt.edu/~palladl2), Accepted for publication in AJ

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• Can a Satellite Galaxy Merger Explain the Active Past of the Galactic Center?
• The CH(G) Index as a New Criterion for Selecting Red Giant Stars