Metallicities for more than 10 million stars derived from Gaia BP/RP spectra

Abstract

Context. The third Gaia Data Release, which includes BP/RP spectra for 219 million sources, has opened a new window in the exploration of the chemical history and evolution of the Milky Way. The wealth of information encapsulated in these data is far greater than their low resolving power (R=50) at first glance would suggest, as shown in many studies. We zero in on the use of this data for the purpose of the detection of ''new'' metal-poor stars, which are hard to find yet essential for understanding - among other - several aspects of the origin of the Galaxy, star formation and the creation of the elements. Aims. We strive to refine a metal-poor candidate selection method which was developed with simulated Gaia BP/RP spectra, with an ultimate objective of providing the community with both a recipe to select stars for medium/high resolution observations and a catalogue of stellar metallicities. Methods. We used a datased comprised of GALAH DR3 and SAGA database stars in order to verify and adjust to real world data our selection method. For that purpose, we used dereddening as a mean to tackle the issue of extinction, and then we applied our fine-tuned method to select metal-poor candidates, which we thereafter observed and analysed. Results. We were able to infer metallicities for GALAH DR3 and SAGA stars - with color excesses up to E(B-V)<1.5 - with an uncertainty of 0.36 dex, which is good enough for the purpose of identifying new metal-poor stars. Further, we selected 26 metal-poor candidates - via our method - for observations. As spectral analysis showed, 100% of them had [Fe/H]<-2.0, 57% had [Fe/H]<-2.5 and 8% had [Fe/H]<-3.0. We inferred metallicities for these stars with an uncertainty of 0.31 dex, as was proven when comparing to the spectroscopic [Fe/H]. Finally, we assembled a catalogue of metallicities for 10 861 062 stars.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&