Giants DDO photometry

In the abundance range -1.0>[Fe/H]>=-1.6 we find, in addition to objects with normal halo kinematics, objects in a disk configuration, confirming the results of Norris, Bessell, and Pickles (1985ApJS...58..463N). This disk is rotating rapidly, V_rot_=170+/-15km/s, and has a scale height of 1.4+/-0.7kpc, these kinematical and spatial properties are similar to those of the thick disk. We show that these objects have different kinematics from that of the globular clusters and a sample of local RR Lyraes in the same abundance range.

This suggests to us that these objects are better associated with the thick disk than the halo, and we refer to them as "metal-weak thick-disk stars". Hence we suggest that the conventional chemical description of the thick disk (Gilmore and Wyse, 1985AJ.....90.2015G) be widened to include stars with abundances as low as [Fe/H]=-1.6. At the galactic plane, the density of these metal-weak thick-disk stars is similar to that of halo stars, so they significantly affect the measurement, from samples selected on abundance, of the components of the velocity ellipsoid for the halo in the solar neighborhood.

For the halo giants in our sample we measure {sigma}_{phi}_=102+/-24 and V_rot_=17+/-24km/s. The rotation velocity and velocity ellipsoid for the metal-weak halo in the solar neighborhood have been rederived for objects with [Fe/H]<=-1.6 from the large sample of Norris (1986ApJS...61..667N), thus removing the possibility of contamination by metal-weak thick-disk stars. We derive V_rot_=25+/-15km/s and ({sigma}_r_, {sigma}_{phi}_, {sigma}_{theta}_)=(133+/-8, 98+/-13, 94+/-6)km/s.

These values are more consistent with other information about the shape of the halo. For a description of the DDO photometric system, see e.g. <GCPD/12>