The Galactic Phosphorus Survey. I. Chemical Evolution across the Galactic Disk from ∼750 FGK Stars*
5 affiliations
- 1The University of Texas at Austin
- 2Indiana University
- 3Ege University
- 4Louisiana State University
- 5University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
Phosphorus (P) is an odd- Z element produced primarily in massive stars and is also important for planetary chemistry as an element essential to life. However, its evolution over cosmic time remains poorly constrained because precise and homogeneous stellar P measurements are scarce. We determine the relationship between [P/Fe] and [Fe/H] over a range of metallicities across the Galactic disk and assess its variation between different stellar populations using the largest uniformly analyzed sample to date, comprising ∼750 FGK stars with high-resolution near-infrared spectra. Stellar parameters are determined through a spectro-photometric approach, and P abundances are derived by fitting synthetic spectra to the P I 10529.52 Å absorption feature. We confirm that [P/Fe] increases toward lower metallicities down to [Fe/H] ∼ −1.0 dex, where it appears to peak, broadly resembling the rise seen in α -element abundance ratios over the same metallicity range and supporting a dominant contribution from massive stars on short core-collapse supernova timescales. When separating the sample into Galactic disk populations, thick-disk stars are systematically enhanced in [P/Fe] relative to the thin disk by ∼0.08 dex at fixed metallicity. We also measure a radial [P/Fe] gradient of −0.124 ± 0.006 dex kpc ⁻¹ and a vertical gradient of +0.052 ± 0.007 dex kpc ⁻¹ . Although current chemical evolution models struggle to reproduce the observed trends, this survey increases the number of homogeneously measured stellar P abundances by approximately a factor of 3, providing a new benchmark for Galactic chemical evolution models and the phosphorus inventory available to planetary systems.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{gakis2026galactic,
title = {{The Galactic Phosphorus Survey. I. Chemical Evolution across the Galactic Disk from ∼750 FGK Stars*}},
author = {Dionysios Gakis and Keith Hawkins and Zachary G. Maas and Christopher Sneden and Melike Afşar and Natalie R. Hinkel and Chenguang Sun and Wenwei Liang},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aeaa31},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aeaa31},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The Galactic Phosphorus Survey. I. Chemical Evolution across the Galactic Disk from ∼750 FGK Stars*
AU - Dionysios Gakis
AU - Keith Hawkins
AU - Zachary G. Maas
AU - Christopher Sneden
AU - Melike Afşar
AU - Natalie R. Hinkel
AU - Chenguang Sun
AU - Wenwei Liang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
JO - The Astrophysical Journal
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/aeaa31
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aeaa31
AB - Phosphorus (P) is an odd- Z element produced primarily in massive stars and is also important for planetary chemistry as an element essential to life. However, its evolution over cosmic time remains poorly constrained because precise and homogeneous stellar P measurements are scarce. We determine the relationship between [P/Fe] and [Fe/H] over a range of metallicities across the Galactic disk and assess its variation between different stellar populations using the largest uniformly analyzed sample to date, comprising ∼750 FGK stars with high-resolution near-infrared spectra. Stellar parameters are determined through a spectro-photometric approach, and P abundances are derived by fitting synthetic spectra to the P I 10529.52 Å absorption feature. We confirm that [P/Fe] increases toward lower metallicities down to [Fe/H] ∼ −1.0 dex, where it appears to peak, broadly resembling the rise seen in α -element abundance ratios over the same metallicity range and supporting a dominant contribution from massive stars on short core-collapse supernova timescales. When separating the sample into Galactic disk populations, thick-disk stars are systematically enhanced in [P/Fe] relative to the thin disk by ∼0.08 dex at fixed metallicity. We also measure a radial [P/Fe] gradient of −0.124 ± 0.006 dex kpc ⁻¹ and a vertical gradient of +0.052 ± 0.007 dex kpc ⁻¹ . Although current chemical evolution models struggle to reproduce the observed trends, this survey increases the number of homogeneously measured stellar P abundances by approximately a factor of 3, providing a new benchmark for Galactic chemical evolution models and the phosphorus inventory available to planetary systems.
SN - 0004-637X
SN - 1538-4357
ER -