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We used data from the near-infrared VISTA survey of the Magellanic Cloud system (VMC) to measure proper motions (PMs) of stars within the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The data analysed in this study comprise 26 VMC tiles, covering a total contiguous area on the sky of ~40 deg$^2$. Using multi-epoch observations in the Ks band over time baselines between 13 and 38 months, we calculated absolute PMs with respect to ~130,000 background galaxies. We selected a sample of ~2,160,000 likely SMC member stars to model the centre-of-mass motion of the galaxy. The results found for three different choices of the SMC centre are in good agreement with recent space-based measurements. Using the systemic motion of the SMC, we constructed spatially resolved residual PM maps and analysed for the first time the internal kinematics of the intermediate-age/old and young stellar populations separately. We found outward motions that point either towards a stretching of the galaxy or stripping of its outer regions. Stellar motions towards the North might be related to the "Counter Bridge" behind the SMC. The young populations show larger PMs in the region of the SMC Wing, towards the young Magellanic Bridge. In the older populations, we further detected a coordinated motion of stars away from the SMC in the direction of the Old Bridge as well as a stream towards the SMC., 20 pages, 20 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The Radial Velocity Experiment (Rave) is a magnitude-limited (9 < I < 12) spectroscopic survey of Galactic stars randomly selected in Earth's southern hemisphere. The Rave medium-resolution spectra (R ∼ 7500) cover the Ca-triplet region (8410-8795 Å). The sixth and final data release (DR6) is based on 518,387 observations of 451,783 unique stars. Rave observations were taken between 2003 April 12 and 2013 April 4. Here we present the genesis, setup, and data reduction of Rave as well as wavelength-calibrated and flux-normalized spectra and error spectra for all observations in Rave DR6. Furthermore, we present derived spectral classification and radial velocities for the Rave targets, complemented by cross-matches with Gaia DR2 and other relevant catalogs. A comparison between internal error estimates, variances derived from stars with more than one observing epoch, and a comparison with radial velocities of Gaia DR2 reveals consistently that 68% of the objects have a velocity accuracy better than 1.4 km s-1, while 95% of the objects have radial velocities better than 4.0 km s-1. Stellar atmospheric parameters, abundances and distances are presented in a subsequent publication. The data can be accessed via the Rave website (http://rave-survey.org) or the Vizier database., Funding for Rave has been provided by: the Leibniz-Institut f¨ur Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP); the Australian Astronomical Observatory; the Australian National University; the Australian Research Council; the French National Research Agency (Programme National Cosmology et Galaxies (PNCG) of CNRS/INSU with INP and IN2P3, co-funded by CEA and CNES); the German Research Foundation (SPP 1177 and SFB 881); the European Research Council (ERC-StG 240271 Galactica); the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica at Padova; The Johns Hopkins University; the National Science Foundation of the USA (AST-0908326); the W. M. Keck foundation; the Macquarie University; the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding no. P1-0188); the Swiss National Science Foundation; the Science & Technology Facilities Council of the UK; Opticon; Strasbourg Observatory; and the Universities of Basel, Groningen, Heidelberg, and Sydney. PJM is supported by grant 2017-03721 from the Swedish Research Council. LC is the recipient of the ARC Future Fellowship FT160100402. RAG acknowledges the support from the PLATO CNES grant. SM would like to acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry with the Ramon y Cajal fellowship number RYC-2015-17697. MS thanks the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics in Canberra for support through a Distinguished Visitor Fellowship. RFGW thanks the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Simons Foundation for support as a Simons Distinguished Visiting Scholar. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 to KITP.

We study the morphology of the stellar periphery of the Magellanic Clouds in search of substructure using near-infrared imaging data from the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS). Based on the selection of different stellar populations using the ($J-K_\mathrm{s}$, $K_\mathrm{s}$) colour-magnitude diagram, we confirm the presence of substructures related to the interaction history of the Clouds and find new substructures on the easter side of the LMC disc which may be owing to the influence of the Milky Way, and on the northern side of the SMC, which is probably associated to the ellipsoidal structure of the galaxy. We also study the luminosity function of red clump stars in the SMC and confirm the presence of a bi-modal distance distribution, in the form of a foreground population. We find that this bi-modality is still detectable in the eastern regions of the galaxy out to a 10 deg distance from its centre. Additionally, a background structure is detected in the North between 7 and 10 deg from the centre which might belong to the Counter Bridge, and a foreground structure is detected in the South between 6 and 8 deg from the centre which might be linked to the Old Bridge., 20 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The H{\alpha} spectral line is a well-studied absorption line revealing properties of the highly structured and dynamic solar chromosphere. Typical features with distinct spectral signatures in H{\alpha} include filaments and prominences, bright active-region plages, superpenumbrae around sunspots, surges, flares, Ellerman bombs, filigree, and mottles and rosettes, among others. This study is based on high-spectral resolution H{\alpha} spectra obtained with the echelle spectrograph of the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) located at Observatorio del Teide (ODT), Tenerife, Spain. The t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) is a machine learning algorithm, which is used for nonlinear dimensionality reduction. In this application, it projects H{\alpha} spectra onto a two-dimensional map, where it becomes possible to classify the spectra according to results of Cloud Model (CM) inversions. The CM parameters optical depth, Doppler width, line-of-sight velocity, and source function describe properties of the cloud material. Initial results of t-SNE indicate its strong discriminatory power to separate quiet-Sun and plage profiles from those that are suitable for CM inversions. In addition, a detailed study of various t-SNE parameters is conducted, the impact of seeing conditions on the classification is assessed, results for various types of input data are compared, and the identified clusters are linked to chromospheric features. Although t-SNE proves to be efficient in clustering high-dimensional data, human inference is required at each step to interpret the results. This exploratory study provides a framework and ideas on how to tailor a classification scheme towards specific spectral data and science questions., Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, Accepted to be published in Astrophysical Journal

[Context] Data-driven methods play an increasingly important role in the field of astrophysics In the context of large spectroscopic surveys of stars, data-driven methods are key in deducing physical parameters for millions of spectra in a short time. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) enable us to connect observables (e.g. spectra, stellar magnitudes) to physical properties (atmospheric parameters, chemical abundances, or labels in general)., [Aims] We test whether it is possible to transfer the labels derived from a high-resolution stellar survey to intermediate-resolution spectra of another survey by using a CNN., [Methods] We trained a CNN, adopting stellar atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances from APOGEE DR16 (resolution R = 22 500) data as training set labels. As input, we used parts of the intermediate-resolution RAVE DR6 spectra (R ∼ 7500) overlapping with the APOGEE DR16 data as well as broad-band ALL_WISE and 2MASS photometry, together with Gaia DR2 photometry and parallaxes., [Results] We derived precise atmospheric parameters Teff, log(g), and [M/H], along with the chemical abundances of [Fe/H], [α/M], [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Al/Fe], and [Ni/Fe] for 420 165 RAVE spectra. The precision typically amounts to 60 K in Teff, 0.06 in log(g) and 0.02−0.04 dex for individual chemical abundances. Incorporating photometry and astrometry as additional constraints substantially improves the results in terms of the accuracy and precision of the derived labels, as long as we operate in those parts of the parameter space that are well-covered by the training sample. Scientific validation confirms the robustness of the CNN results. We provide a catalogue of CNN-trained atmospheric parameters and abundances along with their uncertainties for 420 165 stars in the RAVE survey., [Conclusions] CNN-based methods provide a powerful way to combine spectroscopic, photometric, and astrometric data without the need to apply any priors in the form of stellar evolutionary models. The developed procedure can extend the scientific output of RAVE spectra beyond DR6 to ongoing and planned surveys such as Gaia RVS, 4MOST, and WEAVE. We call on the community to place a particular collective emphasis and on efforts to create unbiased training samples for such future spectroscopic surveys., Funding for RAVE has been provided by: the Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP); the Australian Astronomical Observatory; the Australian National University; the Australian Research Council; the French National Research Agency (Programme National Cosmology et Galaxies (PNCG) of CNRS/INSU with INP and IN2P3, co-funded by CEA and CNES); the German Research Foundation (SPP 1177 and SFB 881); the European Research Council (ERC-StG 240271 Galactica); the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica at Padova; The Johns Hopkins University; the National Science Foundation of the USA (AST-0908326); the W. M. Keck foundation; the Macquarie University; the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding no. P1-0188); the Swiss National Science Foundation; the Science & Technology Facilities Council of the UK; Opticon; Strasbourg Observatory; and the Universities of Basel, Groningen, Heidelberg, and Sydney. TZ acknowledges financial support of the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding No. P1-0188) and of the ESA project PHOTO2CHEM (C4000127986). FA is grateful for funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 800502. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (http://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, http://www.cosmos.esa. int/web/gaia/dpac/consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

The Magellanic Clouds are a nearby pair of interacting dwarf galaxies and satellites of the Milky Way. Studying their kinematic properties is essential to understanding their origin and dynamical evolution. They have prominent tidal features and the kinematics of these features can give hints about the formation of tidal dwarfs, galaxy merging and the stripping of gas. In addition they are an example of dwarf galaxies that are in the process of merging with a massive galaxy. The goal of this study is to investigate the kinematics of the Magellanic Bridge, a tidal feature connecting the Magellanic Clouds, using stellar proper motions to understand their most recent interaction. We calculated proper motions based on multi-epoch $K_{s}$-band aperture photometry, which were obtained with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), spanning a time of 1-3 yr, and we compared them with $Gaia$ Data Release 2 (DR2) proper motions. We tested two methods for removing Milky Way foreground stars using $Gaia$~DR2 parallaxes in combination with VISTA photometry or using distances based on Bayesian inference. We obtained proper motions for a total of 576,411 unique sources over an area of $23$ deg$^{2}$ covering the Magellanic Bridge including mainly Milky Way foreground stars, background galaxies, and a small population of possible Magellanic Bridge stars ($, Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We present part 2 of the sixth and final Data Release (DR6) of the Radial Velocity Experiment (Rave), a magnitude-limited spectroscopic survey of Galactic stars randomly selected in Earth's southern hemisphere. The Rave medium-resolution spectra (R ∼ 7500) cover the Ca triplet region (8410-8795 Å) and span the complete time frame from the start of Rave observations on 2003 April 12 to their completion on 2013 April 4. In the second of two publications, we present the data products derived from 518,387 observations of 451,783 unique stars using a suite of advanced reduction pipelines focusing on stellar atmospheric parameters, in particular purely spectroscopically derived stellar atmospheric parameters, and the overall metallicity), enhanced stellar atmospheric parameters inferred via a Bayesian pipeline using Gaia DR2 astrometric priors, and asteroseismically calibrated stellar atmospheric parameters for giant stars based on asteroseismic observations for 699 K2 stars. In addition, we provide abundances of the elements Fe, Al, and Ni, as well as an overall [α/Fe] ratio obtained using a new pipeline based on the GAUGUIN optimization method that is able to deal with variable signal-to-noise ratios. The Rave DR6 catalogs are cross-matched with relevant astrometric and photometric catalogs, and are complemented by orbital parameters and effective temperatures based on the infrared flux method. The data can be accessed via the Rave website (http://rave-survey.org) or the Vizier database., Funding for Rave has been provided by: the Leibniz-Institut f¨ur Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP); the Australian Astronomical Observatory; the Australian National University; the Australian Research Council; the French National Research Agency (Programme National Cosmology et Galaxies (PNCG) of CNRS/INSU with INP and IN2P3, co-funded by CEA and CNES); the German Research Foundation (SPP 1177 and SFB 881); the European Research Council (ERC-StG 240271 Galactica); the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica at Padova; The Johns Hopkins University; the National Science Foundation of the USA (AST-0908326); the W. M. Keck foundation; the Macquarie University; the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; the Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding no. P1-0188); the Swiss National Science Foundation; the Science & Technology Facilities Council of the UK; Opticon; Strasbourg Observatory; and the Universities of Basel, Groningen, Heidelberg, and Sydney. PJM is supported by grant 2017-03721 from the Swedish Research Council. LC is the recipient of the ARC Future Fellowship FT160100402. RAG acknowledges the support from the PLATO CNES grant. SM would like to acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry with the Ramon y Cajal fellowship number RYC-2015-17697. MS thanks the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics in Canberra for support through a Distinguished Visitor Fellowship. RFGW thanks the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Simons Foundation for support as a Simons Distinguished Visiting Scholar. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1748958 to KITP.

The Pristine survey uses narrow-band photometry to derive precise metallicities down to the extremely metal-poor regime ([Fe/H] < -3), and currently consists of over 4 million FGK-type stars over a sky area of $\sim 2~500\, \mathrm{deg}^2$. We focus our analysis on a subsample of $\sim 80~000$ main sequence turnoff stars with heliocentric distances between 6 and 20 kpc, which we take to be a representative sample of the inner halo. The resulting metallicity distribution function (MDF) has a peak at [Fe/H] = -1.6, and a slope of $��$(LogN)/$��[Fe/H] = 1.0 \pm 0.1$ in the metallicity range of -3.4 < [Fe/H] < -2.5. This agrees well with a simple closed-box chemical enrichment model in this range, but is shallower than previous spectroscopic MDFs presented in the literature, suggesting that there may be a larger proportion of metal-poor stars in the inner halo than previously reported. We identify the Monoceros/TriAnd/ACS/EBS/A13 structure in metallicity space in a low latitude field in the anticenter direction, and also discuss the possibility that the inner halo is dominated by a single, large merger event, but cannot strongly support or refute this idea with the current data. Finally, based on the MDF of field stars, we estimate the number of expected metal-poor globular clusters in the Milky Way halo to be 5.4 for [Fe/H] < -2.5 and 1.5 for [Fe/H] < -3, suggesting that the lack of low metallicity globular clusters in the Milky Way is not due simply to statistical undersampling., 17 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Dwarf galaxies enable us to study the early phases of galaxy evolution and are key to many open questions about the hierarchical structure of the Universe. The Large and Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC) are the most luminous dwarf galaxy satellites of the Milky Way (MW). They are most likely gravitationally bound to each other, and their last interaction occurred about 200 Myr ago. Also, they are in an early phase of minor merging with the MW and will impact the Galactic structure in the future because of their relatively large mass. However, there are still major uncertainties regarding their origin and their interactions with one another and with the Milky Way. We cross-correlated the VMC and Gaia DR2 data to select a sample of stars that likely belong to the Magellanic Bridge, a feature formed of gas and stars which is connecting the LMC and the SMC. We removed potential MW foreground stars using a combination of parallax and colour-magnitude criteria and calculated the proper motions of the Bridge member stars. Our analysis supports a motion of star towards the LMC, which was found to be in good agreement with a dynamical simulation, of the SMC being stripped by the LMC., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Poster contribution, IAU Symposium 344, Dwarf Galaxies: from the Deep Universe to the Present, (Eds) S. Stierwalt & K. McQuinn

A new moderately r-process-enhanced metal-poor star, RAVE J093730.5-062655, has been identified in the Milky Way halo as part of an ongoing survey by the R-Process Alliance. The temperature and surface gravity indicate that J0937-0626 is likely a horizontal branch star. At [Fe/H] = -1.86, J0937-0626 is found to have subsolar [X/Fe] ratios for nearly every light, alpha, and Fe-peak element. The low [alpha/Fe] ratios can be explained by an ~0.6 dex excess of Fe; J0937-0626 is therefore similar to the subclass of "iron-enhanced" metal-poor stars. A comparison with Milky Way field stars at [Fe/H] = -2.5 suggests that J0937-0626 was enriched in material from an event, possibly a Type Ia supernova, that created a significant amount of Cr, Mn, Fe, and Ni and smaller amounts of Ca, Sc, Ti, and Zn. The r-process enhancement of J0937-0626 is likely due to a separate event, which suggests that its birth environment was highly enriched in r-process elements. The kinematics of J0937-0626, based on Gaia DR2 data, indicate a retrograde orbit in the Milky Way halo; J0937-0626 was therefore likely accreted from a dwarf galaxy that had significant r-process enrichment., Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Simpson's paradox, or Yule-Simpson effect, arises when a trend appears in different subsets of data but disappears or reverses when these subsets are combined. We describe here seven cases of this phenomenon for chemo-kinematical relations believed to constrain the Milky Way disk formation and evolution. We show that interpreting trends in relations, such as the radial and vertical chemical abundance gradients, the age-metallicity relation, and the metallicity-rotational velocity relation (MVR), can lead to conflicting conclusions about the Galaxy past if analyses marginalize over stellar age and/or birth radius. It is demonstrated that the MVR in RAVE giants is consistent with being always strongly negative, when narrow bins of [Mg/Fe] are considered. This is directly related to the negative radial metallicity gradients of stars grouped by common age (mono-age populations) due to the inside out disk formation. The effect of the asymmetric drift can then give rise to a positive MVR trend in high-[alpha/Fe] stars, with a slope dependent on a given survey's selection function and observational uncertainties. We also study the variation of lithium abundance, A(Li), with [Fe/H] of AMBRE:HARPS dwarfs. A strong reversal in the positive A(Li)-[Fe/H] trend of the total sample is found for mono-age populations, flattening for younger groups of stars. Dissecting by birth radius shows strengthening in the positive A(Li)-[Fe/H] trend, shifting to higher [Fe/H] with decreasing birth radius; these observational results suggest new constraints on chemical evolution models. This work highlights the necessity for precise age estimates for large stellar samples covering wide spatial regions., 13 p., 7 Fig., Accepted to MNRAS

The Magellanic Clouds are nearby dwarf irregular galaxies whose morphologies show different properties when traced by different stellar populations, making them an important laboratory for studying galaxy morphologies. We study the morphology of the Magellanic Clouds using data from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC). We used about $10$ and $2.5$ million sources across an area of $\sim105$ deg$^2$ and $\sim42$ deg$^2$ towards the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC), respectively. We estimated median ages of stellar populations occupying different regions of the near-infrared ($J-K_\mathrm{s}, K_\mathrm{s}$) colour-magnitude diagram. Morphological maps were produced and detailed features in the central regions were characterised for the first time with bins corresponding to a spatial resolution of $0.13$ kpc (LMC) and $0.16$ kpc (SMC). In the LMC, we find that main sequence stars show coherent structures that grow with age and trace the multiple spiral arms of the galaxy, star forming regions become dimmer as we progress in age, while supergiant stars are centrally concentrated. Intermediate-age stars, despite tracing a regular and symmetrical morphology, show central clumps and hints of spiral arms. In the SMC, young main sequence stars depict a broken bar. Intermediate-age populations show signatures of elongation towards the Magellanic Bridge that can be attributed to the LMC-SMC interaction $\sim200$ Myr ago. They also show irregular central features suggesting that the inner SMC has also been influenced by tidal interactions., Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 20 pages, 12 figures and 2 tables

The Large and Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC) are the most luminous dwarf galaxy satellites of the Milky Way. Thanks to their close proximity (50-60 kpc), they provide one of the best opportunities to study in detail the kinematics of resolved stellar populations in an interacting pair of galaxies. Large photometric surveys like the ongoing Gaia mission and the near-infrared VISTA survey of the Magellanic Cloud system (VMC) will have a significant impact on our insight into the Magellanic system. We have combined the individual strengths of VMC and Gaia DR2 data to improve our understanding of the internal kinematics of the galaxies. In this study, we present results from our ongoing project dedicated to measure and analyse the proper motions of large samples of stars across the Magellanic Clouds, efficiently removing Milk Way foreground stars utilising distances derived with the StarHorse code.

Combining the precise parallaxes and optical photometry delivered by Gaia's second data release (Gaia DR2) with the photometric catalogues of PanSTARRS-1, 2MASS, and AllWISE, we derive Bayesian stellar parameters, distances, and extinctions for 265 million stars brighter than G=18. Because of the wide wavelength range used, our results substantially improve the accuracy and precision of previous extinction and effective temperature estimates. After cleaning our results for both unreliable input and output data, we retain 137 million stars, for which we achieve a median precision of 5% in distance, 0.20 mag in V-band extinction, and 245 K in effective temperature for G, Comment: 25 pages, 23 figures + appendix, accepted for publication in A&A. Data (doi:10.17876/gaia/dr.2/51) are available through ADQL queries at gaia.aip.de

This paper presents the detailed abundances and r-process classifications of 126 newly identified metal-poor stars as part of an ongoing collaboration, the R-Process Alliance. The stars were identified as metal-poor candidates from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) and were followed-up at high spectral resolution (R~31,500) with the 3.5~m telescope at Apache Point Observatory. The atmospheric parameters were determined spectroscopically from Fe I lines, taking into account non-LTE corrections and using differential abundances with respect to a set of standards. Of the 126 new stars, 124 have [Fe/H]+1.0). Nineteen stars are found to exhibit a `limited-r' signature ([Sr/Ba]>+0.5, [Ba/Eu], Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We present evidence from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) survey of chemically separated, kinematically distinct disc components in the solar neighbourhood. We apply probabilistic chemical selection criteria to separate our sample into $\alpha$-low (`thin disc') and $\alpha$-high (`thick disc') sequences. Using newly derived distances, which will be utilized in the upcoming RAVE DR5, we explore the kinematic trends as a function of metallicity for each of the disc components. For our $\alpha$-low disc, we find a negative trend in the mean rotational velocity ($V_{\mathrm{\phi}}$) as a function of iron abundance ([Fe/H]). We measure a positive gradient $\partial V_{\mathrm{\phi}}$/$\partial$[Fe/H] for the $\alpha$-high disc, consistent with results from high-resolution surveys. We also find differences between the $\alpha$-low and $\alpha$-high discs in all three components of velocity dispersion. We discuss the implications of an $\alpha$-low, metal-rich population originating from the inner Galaxy, where the orbits of these stars have been significantly altered by radial mixing mechanisms in order to bring them into the solar neighbourhood. The probabilistic separation we propose can be extended to other data sets for which the accuracy in [$\alpha$/Fe] is not sufficient to disentangle the chemical disc components a priori. For such datasets which will also have significant overlap with Gaia DR1, we can therefore make full use of the improved parallax and proper motion data as it becomes available to investigate kinematic trends in these chemical disc components., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The Magellanic Clouds are nearby dwarf irregular galaxies that represent a unique laboratory for studying galaxy interactions. Their morphology and dynamics have been heavily influenced by their mutual interactions as well as with their interaction(s) with the Milky Way. We use the VISTA near-infrared YJKs survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC) in combination with stellar partial models of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the Milky Way to investigate the spatial distribution of stellar populations of different ages across the Magellanic Clouds. In this contribution, we present the results of these studies that allow us to trace substructures possibly related to the interaction history of the Magellanic Clouds., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Poster contribution, IAU Symposium 344, Dwarf Galaxies: from the Deep Universe to the Present, (Eds) S. Stierwalt & K. McQuinn

The catalog of 38,000 chromospherically active RAVE dwarfs represents one of the largest samples of young active solar-like and later-type single field stars in the Solar neighbourhood. It was established from the unbiased magnitude limited RAVE Survey using an unsupervised stellar classification algorithm based merely on stellar fluxes (Ca II infrared triplet). Using a newly-calibrated age-activity relation, ~15,000 active stars are estimated to be younger than 1 Gyr. Almost 2000 stars are presumably younger than ~100 Myr and possibly still in the pre-main sequence phase, the latter being supported by their significant offset from the main sequence in the NUV − V versus J − K space. 16,000 stars from the sample have positional and velocity vectors available (using TGAS parallaxes and proper motions and radial velocities from RAVE).

We present a novel analysis of the metal-poor star sample in the complete Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) Data Release 5 catalog with the goal of identifying and characterizing all very metal-poor stars observed by the survey. Using a three-stage method, we first identified the candidate stars using only their spectra as input information. We employed an algorithm called t-SNE to construct a low-dimensional projection of the spectrum space and isolate the region containing metal-poor stars. Following this step, we measured the equivalent widths of the near-infrared CaII triplet lines with a method based on flexible Gaussian processes to model the correlated noise present in the spectra. In the last step, we constructed a calibration relation that converts the measured equivalent widths and the color information coming from the 2MASS and WISE surveys into metallicity and temperature estimates. We identified 877 stars with at least a 50% probability of being very metal-poor $(\rm [Fe/H] < -2\,\rm dex)$, out of which 43 are likely extremely metal-poor $(\rm [Fe/H] < -3\,\rm dex )$. The comparison of the derived values to a small subsample of stars with literature metallicity values shows that our method works reliably and correctly estimates the uncertainties, which typically have values $��_{\rm [Fe/H]} \approx 0.2\,\mathrm{dex}$. In addition, when compared to the metallicity results derived using the RAVE DR5 pipeline, it is evident that we achieve better accuracy than the pipeline and therefore more reliably evaluate the very metal-poor subsample. Based on the repeated observations of the same stars, our method gives very consistent results. The method used in this work can also easily be extended to other large-scale data sets, including to the data from the Gaia mission and the upcoming 4MOST survey., Accepted by A&A

The orbits, atmospheric parameters, chemical abundances, and ages of individual stars in the Milky Way provide the most comprehensive illustration of galaxy formation available. The Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) will deliver astrometric parameters for the largest ever sample of Milky Way stars, though its full potential cannot be realized without the addition of complementary spectroscopy. Among existing spectroscopic surveys, the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) has the largest overlap with TGAS ($\gtrsim$200,000 stars). We present a data-driven re-analysis of 520,781 RAVE spectra using The Cannon. For red giants, we build our model using high-fidelity APOGEE stellar parameters and abundances for stars that overlap with RAVE. For main-sequence and sub-giant stars, our model uses stellar parameters from the K2/EPIC. We derive and validate effective temperature $T_{\rm eff}$, surface gravity $\log{g}$, and chemical abundances of up to seven elements (O, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Fe, Ni). We report a total of 1,685,851 elemental abundances with a typical precision of 0.07 dex, a substantial improvement over previous RAVE data releases. The synthesis of RAVE-on and TGAS is the most powerful data set for chemo-dynamic analyses of the Milky Way ever produced., Derived labels, associated errors, and relevant metadata are available from the RAVE database (http://www.rave-survey.org) from 19 September 2016

Data Release 5 (DR5) of the Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) is the fifth data release from a magnitude-limited (9< I < 12) survey of stars randomly selected in the southern hemisphere. The RAVE medium-resolution spectra ($R\sim7500$) covering the Ca-triplet region (8410-8795��) span the complete time frame from the start of RAVE observations in 2003 to their completion in 2013. Radial velocities from 520,781 spectra of 457,588 unique stars are presented, of which 255,922 stellar observations have parallaxes and proper motions from the Tycho-Gaia astrometric solution (TGAS) in Gaia DR1. For our main DR5 catalog, stellar parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, and overall metallicity) are computed using the RAVE DR4 stellar pipeline, but calibrated using recent K2 Campaign 1 seismic gravities and Gaia benchmark stars, as well as results obtained from high-resolution studies. Also included are temperatures from the Infrared Flux Method, and we provide a catalogue of red giant stars in the dereddened color $(J-Ks)_0$ interval (0.50,0.85) for which the gravities were calibrated based only on seismology. Further data products for sub-samples of the RAVE stars include individual abundances for Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe, and Ni, and distances found using isochrones. Each RAVE spectrum is complemented by an error spectrum, which has been used to determine uncertainties on the parameters. The data can be accessed via the RAVE Web site or the Vizier database., accepted Astronomical Journal version, data tables on RAVE Web site: https://www.rave-survey.org/project/

Galah is an ongoing high-resolution spectroscopic survey with the goal of disentangling the formation history of the Milky Way, using the fossil remnants of disrupted star formation sites which are now dispersed around the Galaxy. It is targeting a randomly selected, magnitude limited ($V \leq 14$) sample of stars, with the goal of observing one million objects. To date, 300,000 spectra have been obtained. Not all of them are correctly processed by parameter estimation pipelines and we need to know about them. We present a semi-automated classification scheme which identifies different types of peculiar spectral morphologies, in an effort to discover and flag potentially problematic spectra and thus help to preserve the integrity of the survey's results. To this end we employ a recently developed dimensionality reduction technique t-SNE (t-distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding), which enables us to represent the complex spectral morphology in a two-dimensional projection map while still preserving the properties of the local neighbourhoods of spectra. We find that the majority (178,483) of the 209,533 Galah spectra considered in this study represents normal single stars, whereas 31,050 peculiar and problematic spectra with very diverse spectral features pertaining to 28,579 stars are distributed into 10 classification categories: Hot stars, Cool metal-poor giants, Molecular absorption bands, Binary stars, H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ emission, H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ emission superimposed on absorption, H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ P-Cygni, H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ inverted P-Cygni, Lithium absorption, and Problematic. Classified spectra with supplementary information are presented in the catalogue, indicating candidates for follow-up observations and population studies of the short-lived phases of stellar evolution.

This research note presents a comparison of radial velocities between the RAVE DR5 data release with Gaia DR2. RAVE DR5 and Gaia DR2 have 450587 stars in common. In particular we would like to shed light on a small subset of joint targets (707 stars) that exhibit a constant velocity offset of +105 km/s or -76 km/s, respectively. Overall this comparison confirms the excellent agreement between those two data sets. The velocity differences can well be matched with two Gaussians with FWHM of 1.2 km/s and 3.6 km/s, respectively. There is a systematic offset of about -0.32 km/s, consistent with the findings in Gaia DR2, who find an offset of -0.29 km/s. The offset is also comparable to the offset found between Gaia DR2 and other ground-based spectroscopic surveys in a similar magnitude range, indicative that the source for this offset may at least partially be related to the radial velocity zeropoint of Gaia DR2. We identified 707 stars that exhibit large constant velocity offsets. These cases can be traced to a problem of the reduction pipeline in propagating the wavelength calibration between neighboring fibres near the edges of the field plate, in particular for observations done just before fibre repairs, i.e. when live fibres were separated by large gaps of broken ones. In 82\%\ of these cases the offset between RAVE DR5 and Gaia DR2 radial velocity is in the $+105 \pm 15$~\kms range. These spectra belong to the first 10 fibres of the field plate. Another 3\%\ of the spectra have velocity offset in the $-76 \pm 4$~\kms range and were observed with the fibres 148-150. Even though the majority of these 707 stars do not exhibit any particularity in the radial velocity, we recommend excluding them from future studies.

We present results from a medium-resolution (R ~ 2, 000) spectroscopic follow-up campaign of 1,694 bright (V < 13.5), very metal-poor star candidates from the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE). Initial selection of the low-metallicity targets was based on the stellar parameters published in RAVE Data Releases 4 and 5. Follow-up was accomplished with the Gemini-N and Gemini-S, the ESO/NTT, the KPNO/Mayall, and the SOAR telescopes. The wavelength coverage for most of the observed spectra allows for the determination of carbon and ��-element abundances, which are crucial for con- sidering the nature and frequency of the carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars in this sample. We find that 88% of the observed stars have [Fe/H], 134 pages, accepted for publication in AJ

Throughout the past decade, significant advances have been made in the size and scope of large-scale spectroscopic surveys, allowing for the opportunity to study in-depth the formation history of the Milky Way. Using the fourth data release of the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), we study the age-metallicity-velocity space of ~ 100,000 FGK stars in the extended solar neighborhood in order to explore evolutionary processes. Combining these three parameters, we better constrain our understanding of these interconnected, fundamental processes.

Radial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) observed ~500,000 southern sky stars between 2003 and 2013 in the infra-red calcium triplet (CaII) spectral region. In this study we extended the analysis of RAVE very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] < −2) presented by Fulbright et al. (2010). We employed a novel method for identifying the metal-poor stars and developed a tool for modeling CaII lines where we also modeled the background noise to avoid systematical biases in the equivalent width (EW) measurements. Final metallicity values were derived with a flexible calibration approach using only 2MASS photometric data and EW measurements obtained from the RAVE spectra.

We present the stellar atmospheric parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, overall metallicity), radial velocities, individual abundances and distances determined for 425 561 stars, which constitute the fourth public data release of the RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE). The stellar atmospheric parameters are computed using a new pipeline, based on the algorithms of MATISSE and DEGAS. The spectral degeneracies and the 2MASS photometric information are now better taken into consideration, improving the parameter determination compared to the previous RAVE data releases. The individual abundances for six elements (magnesium, aluminum, silicon, titanium, iron and nickel) are also given, based on a special-purpose pipeline which is also improved compared to that available for the RAVE DR3 and Chemical DR1 data releases. Together with photometric information and proper motions, these data can be retrieved from the RAVE collaboration website and the Vizier database., 40 pages, 36 figures, accepted in AJ

Studying the Milky Way disk structure using stars in narrow bins of [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe] has recently been proposed as a powerful method to understand the Galactic thick and thin disk formation. It has been assumed so far that these mono-abundance populations (MAPs) are also coeval, or mono-age, populations. Here we study this relationship for a Milky Way chemo-dynamical model and show that equivalence between MAPs and mono-age populations exists only for the high-[alpha/Fe] tail, where the chemical evolution curves of different Galactic radii are far apart. At lower [alpha/Fe]-values a MAP is composed of stars with a range in ages, even for small observational uncertainties and a small MAP bin size. Due to the disk inside-out formation, for these MAPs younger stars are typically located at larger radii, which results in negative radial age gradients that can be as large as 2 Gyr/kpc. Positive radial age gradients can result for MAPs at the lowest [alpha/Fe] and highest [Fe/H] end. Such variations with age prevent the simple interpretation of observations for which accurate ages are not available. Studying the variation with radius of the stellar surface density and scale-height in our model, we find good agreement to recent analyses of the APOGEE red-clump (RC) sample when 1-4 Gyr old stars dominate (as expected for the RC). Our results suggest that the APOGEE data are consistent with a Milky Way model for which mono-age populations flare for all ages. We propose observational tests for the validity of our predictions and argue that using accurate age measurements, such as from asteroseismology, is crucial for putting constraints on the Galactic formation and evolution., 8 p., 8 fig., replaced with accepted version (minor changes)