Chemodynamical simulations of the Milky Way Galaxy

Abstract

We simulate the chemodynamical evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy, including the nucleosynthesis yields of hypernovae and a new progenitor model for Type la Supernovae (SNe la). In our nucleosynthesis yields of core-collapse supernovae, we use light curve and spectral fitting to individual supernovae to estimate the mass of the progenitor, the explosion energy and the iron mass produced. A large contribution of hypernovae is required from the observed abundance of Zn [Zn/Fe] similar to 0). In our progenitor model of SNe la, based on the single degenerate scenario, the SN Ia lifetime distribution spans a range of 0.1 - 20 Gyr with peaks at both - 0.1 and I Gyr. A metallicity effect from white dwarf winds is required from the observed trends of elemental abundance ratios (i.e., [(alpha,Mn,Zn)/Fe]-[Fe/H] relations). In our simulated Milky Way-type galaxy, the kinematical and chemical properties of the bulge, disk, and halo are broadly consistent with observations. 80% of the thick disk stars are older than similar to 8 Gyr and tend to have larger [alpha/Fe] than in the thin disk.