Chemo-dynamical stratification of the Galactic disc using Gaia –ESO open clusters

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Abstract
Context . Understanding how the Milky Way disc assembled and evolved requires tracing the coupled evolution of stellar chemistry and orbital structure over time. Open clusters, as coeval stellar populations with well-constrained ages, distances, and chemical properties, provide powerful benchmarks for this purpose. Aims . We aim to characterise the age-dependent chemo-dynamical structure of the Galactic disc and to investigate how open clusters populate dynamical phase space as a function of age. Methods . We analysed a sample of Galactic open clusters using homogeneous chemical abundances from the Gaia –ESO Survey together with Gaia DR3 phase-space information. Combining cluster ages with orbital parameters and actions, we examined how clusters have populated dynamical phase space over the last ∼4 Gyr. Results . We find that clusters with similar chemical properties occupy coherent regions of action space, while their orbital structure shows a clear dependence on age. Radial excursions and orbital eccentricities broaden systematically towards older ages, indicating increasingly diverse orbital configurations in the older cluster population. The dispersion in the [Fe/H]– R g relation also increases with age, which is consistent with a combination of secular redistribution, survival bias, and dynamically distinct outer-disc populations. In addition, older clusters reach larger vertical amplitudes and vertical actions, revealing a coupled but anisotropic evolution between in-plane and vertical orbital structure. Conclusions . Open clusters provide precise, age-resolved tracers of the chemo-dynamical structure of the Galactic disc. Our results reveal systematic age-dependent variations in the orbital and chemical properties of the cluster population, consistent with the combined effects of secular evolution, orbital redistribution, and environmentally dependent cluster survival over the last few gigayears.
Funding Information
  • Universidad Andrés Bello (DI-07-25/ATP)

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