The formation history of the Galactic bulge

Abstract

The distributions of the stellar metallicities of K giant stars in several fields of the Galactic bulge, taken from the literature are compared with a simple model of star formation and chemical evolution. Our model assumes a Schmidt law of star formation and is described by only a few parameters that control the infall and outflow of gas and the star formation efficiency. We find that very short infall timescales are needed, with durations of infall and star formation greater than 1 Gyr being ruled out at the 90% confidence level. The metallicity distributions are compatible with an important amount of gas and metals being ejected in outflows, although a detailed quantification of the ejected gas fraction is strongly dependent on a precise determination of the absolute stellar metallities. The recent bulge data from Zoccali et al. are also analyzed, and the subsample with subsolar metallicities still rules out infall timescales around 1 Gyr at the 90% confidence level. Hence, the short timescales we derive based on the observed distribution of metallicities are robust and should be taken as stringent constraints on bulge formation models.