The Pristine survey

The discovery of the most metal-poor stream, C-19, provides us with a fossil record of a stellar structure born very soon after the big bang. In this work, we search for new C-19 members throughout the sky by combining two complementary stream-searching algorithms, STREAMFINDER and StarGO , and utilizing low-metallicity star samples from the Pristine survey, as well as Gaia BP and RP spectrophotometric catalogs. We confirm 13 new members, spread over more than 100°, using velocity and metallicity information from a set of spectroscopic follow-up programs that targeted a quasi-complete sample of our bright candidates ( G ≲ 16.0). From the updated set of stream members, we confirm that the stream is wide, with a stream width of ~200 pc, and dynamically hot, with a derived velocity dispersion of 10.9 -1.5 +2.1 km s −1 . The tension remains between these quantities and a purely baryonic scenario in which the relatively low-mass stream (even updated to a few 10 4 M ⊙ ) stems from a globular cluster progenitor, as suggested by its chemical abundances. Some heating mechanism, such as preheating of the cluster in its own dark matter halo or through interactions with halo substructures, appears necessary to explain the tension. The impact of binaries on the measured dispersion also remains unknown. Detailed elemental abundances of more stream members, as well as multi-epoch radial velocities from spectroscopic observations, are therefore crucial to fully understanding the nature and past history of the most metal-poor stream of the Milky Way.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Published
2025-04-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202554119
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Tribology and Lubrication Engineering
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.14

Funders

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article

The Pristine survey

G. Kordopatis, Julio F. Navarro, Nicholas G. Martin, Federico Sestito et al.
3 citations
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Tribology and Lubrication Engineering
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article

The Pristine survey

G. Kordopatis, Julio F. Navarro, Nicholas G. Martin, Federico Sestito, Erika M. Holmbeck, Tadafumi Matsuno, Kim A. Venn, J. Hernández, Rodrigo Ibata, Khyati Malhan, Sara Vitali, T. Sitnova, Akshara Viswanathan, R. G. Carlberg, Zhen Yuan, Fangzhou Jiang, Anke Arentsen
article en
3 citations

Abstract

The discovery of the most metal-poor stream, C-19, provides us with a fossil record of a stellar structure born very soon after the big bang. In this work, we search for new C-19 members throughout the sky by combining two complementary stream-searching algorithms, STREAMFINDER and StarGO , and utilizing low-metallicity star samples from the Pristine survey, as well as Gaia BP and RP spectrophotometric catalogs. We confirm 13 new members, spread over more than 100°, using velocity and metallicity information from a set of spectroscopic follow-up programs that targeted a quasi-complete sample of our bright candidates ( G ≲ 16.0). From the updated set of stream members, we confirm that the stream is wide, with a stream width of ~200 pc, and dynamically hot, with a derived velocity dispersion of 10.9 -1.5 +2.1 km s −1 . The tension remains between these quantities and a purely baryonic scenario in which the relatively low-mass stream (even updated to a few 10 4 M ⊙ ) stems from a globular cluster progenitor, as suggested by its chemical abundances. Some heating mechanism, such as preheating of the cluster in its own dark matter halo or through interactions with halo substructures, appears necessary to explain the tension. The impact of binaries on the measured dispersion also remains unknown. Detailed elemental abundances of more stream members, as well as multi-epoch radial velocities from spectroscopic observations, are therefore crucial to fully understanding the nature and past history of the most metal-poor stream of the Milky Way.

Astronomy and AstrophysicsVol. 698
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, European Space Agency
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Tribology and Lubrication Engineering
2.14
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