Constraining Galactic Infall with Deuterium Observations

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

Measurements of deuterium in the local interstellar medium have revealed large variations in D/H along different lines of sight. Recent Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer measurements indicate that this is due to significant deuterium depletion onto dust grains. This in turn implies that the total deuterium abundance in the local Galactic disk could be as high as D_{ISM}/D_{p} ˜ 84 per cent of the primordial D abundance. Because deuterium is heavily destroyed in stars it was proposed that the infall/accretion of pristine gas is needed to explain such a high deuterium abundance.In this work we explore the infall rate of pristine material that is needed to maintain a high present-day D/H, but also test the consistency of this infall rate with observations of Galactic gas fraction. We find that FUSE deuterium observations and Galactic gas fraction estimates can be reconciled in some models that demand a significant infall rate of pristine material that almost completely balances the rate of star formation. These successful models also demand a relatively low average fraction R &lap 0.32 of gas to be returned by dying stars.

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