Radial Migration from Metallicity Gradient of Open Clusters and Outliers

Abstract

Radial migration is an important process in the evolution of the Galactic disk. The metallicity gradient of open clusters and its outliers provide an effective way to probe for this process. In this work, we compile metallicity, age, and kinematic parameters for 225 open clusters and carry out a quantitative analysis of radial migration via the calculated migration distances. Based on clusters with age $<0.5$ Gyr, we obtain the present-day metallicity gradient of $-0.074\pm 0.007$ dex/kpc. Along this gradient distributes three sequences, and clusters in the upper, the middle, and the lower groups are found to be old outward-migrators, in-situ clusters, and inward-migrators, respectively. The migration distance increases with age, but its most effective time is probably less than 3 Gyr. The metallicity gradient breaks out at $R_g$ (guiding center radius) $\sim 11.5$ kpc, which is caused by the lack of young open clusters in the outer disk and the presence of old outward-migrators in the upper sequence. It shows that this boundary is related to the different effects of radial migration between the inner and outer disks. We also found many special open clusters in and near the outer disk of $R>11$ kpc and a steeper metallicity gradient from the inner disk of $R_g<7$ kpc, which tells a complicated evolution history of the Galactic disk by different effects of stellar radial migration.

19 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

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• Observational Constraints of Radial Migration in the Galactic Disc Driven by the Slowing Bar
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