The formation and survival of the Milky Way's oldest stellar disk

Abstract

It remains a mystery when our Milky Way first formed a stellar disk component that survived and maintained its disk structure from subsequent galaxy mergers. We present a study of the age-dependent structure and star formation rate of the Milky Way's disk using high-alpha stars with significant orbital angular momentum that have precise age determinations. Our results show that the radial scale length is nearly independent of age, while the vertical scale height experienced dramatic evolution. A disk-like geometry presents even for populations older than 13 Gyr, with the scale height-to-length ratio dropping below 0.5 for populations younger than 12.5 Gyr. We dub the oldest population that has maintained a disk geometry - apparently formed over 13 Gyr ago - PanGu. With an estimated present-day stellar mass of $2\times 10^9$ $M_{\odot }$, PanGu is presumed to be a major stellar component of our Galaxy in the earliest epoch. The total present-day stellar mass of the whole high-alpha disk is $2\times 10^{10}$ $M_{\odot }$, mostly formed during a distinct star formation rate peak of 11 $M_{\odot }$ per year around 11 Gyrs ago. A comparison with Milky Way analogs in the TNG50 simulations implies that our Galaxy has experienced an exceptionally quiescent dynamical history, even before the Gaia-Enceladus merger.

Published in Nature Astronomy on 10 October, 2024; This manuscript is the accepted version

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