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The diversity of thick galactic discs

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Abstract

  • Although thick stellar discs are detected in nearly all edge-on disc galaxies, their formation scenarios still remain a matter of debate. Due to observational difficulties, there is a lack of information about their stellar populations. Using the Russian 6-m telescope BTA we collected deep spectra of thick discs in three edge-on S0-a disc galaxies located in different environments: NGC 4111 in a dense group, NGC 4710 in the Virgo cluster, and NGC 5422 in a sparse group. We see intermediate age (4-5 Gyr) metal rich ([Fe/H] ˜- 0.2…0.0 dex) stellar populations in NGC 4111 and NGC 4710. On the other hand, NGC 5422 does not harbour young stars, its disc is thick and old (10 Gyr), without evidence for a second component, and its a-element abundance suggests a 1.5-2 Gyr long formation epoch implying its formation at high redshift. Our results suggest the diversity of thick disc formation scenarios.

Publication Date

  • 2016

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