Hypervelocity Stars. I. The Spectroscopic Survey

Abstract

We discuss our targeted search for hypervelocity stars (HVSs), stars traveling with velocities so extreme that dynamical ejection from a massive black hole is their only suggested origin. Our survey, now half-complete, has successfully identified a total of four probable HVSs plus a number of other unusual objects. Here we report the two most recently discovered HVSs: SDSS J110557.45+093439.5 and possibly SDSS J113312.12+010824, traveling with Galactic rest-frame velocities at least +508 ± 12 and +418 ± 10 km s^-1, respectively. The other late B-type objects in our survey are consistent with a population of post-main-sequence stars or blue stragglers in the Galactic halo, with mean metallicity [Fe/H] = -1.3 and velocity dispersion 108 ± 5 km s^-1. It is interesting to note that the velocity distribution shows a tail of objects with large positive velocities that may be a mix of low-velocity HVSs and high-velocity runaway stars. Our survey also includes a number of DA white dwarfs with unusually red colors, possibly extremely low mass objects. Two of our objects are B supergiants in the Leo A dwarf, providing the first spectroscopic evidence for star formation in this dwarf galaxy within the last ~30 Myr.