alpha & Fe abundances in the giant stellar stream

The spectroscopic observations, obtained at a projected distance of 17kpc from M31's center, yielded 61 stars with [Fe/H] measurements, including 21 stars with [{alpha}/Fe] measurements, from 112 targets identified as M31 stars. The [Fe/H] measurements confirm the expectation from photometric metallicity estimates that stars in this region of M31's halo are relatively metal rich compared to stars in the Milky Way's inner halo: more than half the stars in the field, including those not associated with kinematically identified substructure, have [Fe/H] abundances >-1.0.

The stars in this field are {alpha}-enhanced at lower metallicities, while [{alpha}/Fe] decreases with increasing [Fe/H] above metallicities of [Fe/H]>~-0.9. Three kinematical components have been previously identified in this field: the GSS, a second kinematically cold feature of unknown origin, and M31's kinematically hot halo. We compare probabilistic [Fe/H] and [{alpha}/Fe] distribution functions for each of the components.