Kinematics, ages and metallicities for F and G type stars in the solar neighbourhood

Abstract

A new metallicity distribution and an age-metallicity relation are presented for 437 nearby F and G turn-off and sub-giant stars selected from radial velocity data of Nidever et al. Photometric metallicities are derived from uvby-Hβphotometry, and the stellar ages from the isochrones of Bergbusch & VandenBerg as transformed to $uvby$ photometry using the methods of Clem et al. The X (stellar-population) criterion of Schuster et al., which combines both kinematic and metallicity information, provides 22 thick-disk stars. σ_{\rm W} = 32 \pm 5 km s^{-1}, <V_{\rm rot}> = 154 \pm 6 km s^{-1} and <[M/H]> = -0.55 \pm 0.03 dex for these thick-disk stars, which is in agreement with values from previous studies of the thick disk. α-element abundances which are available for some of these thick-disk stars show the typical alpha-element signatures of the thick disk, supporting the classification procedure based on the $X$ criteria. Both the scatter in metallicity at a given age and the presence of old, metal-rich stars in the age-metallicity relation make it difficult to decide whether or not an age-metallicity relation exists for the older thin-disk stars. For ages greater than 3 Gyr, our results agree with the other recent studies that there is almost no correlation between age and metallicity, Δ([M/Fe])/Δ(age) = -0.01 \pm 0.005 dex Gyr^{-1}. For the 22 thick-disk stars there is a range in ages of 7-8 Gyr, but again almost no correlation between age and metallicity.

11 pages, including 10 figures and 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS