Yu et al., available on arXiv

Abstract: We study stellar-halo formation using six Milky Way-mass galaxies in FIRE-2 cosmological zoom simulations. We find that 5-40% of the outer (50-300 kpc) stellar halo in each system consists of in-situ stars that were born in outflows from the main galaxy. Outflow stars originate from gas accelerated by super-bubble winds, which can be compressed, cool, and form co-moving stars. The majority of these stars remain bound to the halo and fall back with orbital properties similar to the rest of the stellar halo at z=0.In the outer halo, outflow stars are more spatially homogeneous, metal rich, and alpha-element-enhanced than the accreted stellar halo. At the solar location, up to ~10% of our kinematically-identified halo stars were born in outflows; the fraction rises to as high as ~40% for the most metal-rich local halo stars ([Fe/H] > -0.5). We conclude that the Milky Way stellar halo could contain local counterparts to stars that are observed to form in molecular outflows in distant galaxies. Searches for such a population may provide a new, near-field approach to constraining feedback and outflow physics. A stellar halo contribution from outflows is a phase-reversal of the classic halo formation scenario of Eggen, Lynden-Bell & Sandange, who suggested that halo stars formed in rapidly infalling gas clouds. Stellar outflows may be observable in direct imaging of external galaxies and could provide a source for metal-rich, extreme velocity stars in the Milky Way.