Additional Evidence for the Existence of a Primordial Disk System

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 989; no. 2; pp. 167 - 176
• Main Authors: Xu, Shuai, Yuan, Haibo, Huang, Bowen, Beers, Timothy C., Huang, Yang, Xiang, Maosheng, Xiao, Kai, Hong, Jihye, Sun Lee, Young, Yang, Wuming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 20.08.2025; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Astrometry; Enceladus; Galactic archaeology; Inclination angle; Iron; Metallicity; Milky Way disk; Milky Way dynamics; Milky Way evolution; Milky Way formation; Milky Way Galaxy; Parameter estimation; Photometry; Stars; Stellar orbits; Stellar populations
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adf193

The origin of very metal-poor (VMP; [Fe/H] ≤ −2.0) stars on planar orbits has been the subject of great attention since their first discovery. However, prior to the release of the Gaia BP/RP (XP) spectra and large photometric samples such as SkyMapper, SAGES, J-PLUS, and S-PLUS, most studies have been limited due to their small sample sizes or strong selection effects. Here, we crossmatch photometric metallicities derived from Gaia XP synthetic photometry and geometric distances from Bailer-Jones et al., and select 12,000 VMP stars (1604 dwarfs and 10,396 giants) with available high-quality astrometry. After calculating dynamical parameter estimates using AGAMA , we employ the nonnegative matrix factorization technique to the v ϕ distribution across bins in Z max (the maximum height above or below the Galactic plane during the stellar orbit). We find three primary populations of the selected VMP stars: halo, disk system, and the Gaia Sausage/Enceladus structure. The fraction of disk-like stars decreases with increasing Z max (as expected), although it is still ∼20% for stars with Z max ∼ 3 kpc. Similar results emerge from the application of the Hayden criterion, which separates stellar populations on the basis of their orbital inclination angles relative to the Galactic plane. We argue that such high fractions of disk-like stars indicate that they are an independent component, rather than originating solely from Galactic building blocks or heating by minor mergers. We suggest that most of these VMP stars are members of the hypothesized “primordial” disk.