Origin of Low-mass Hypervelocity Stars in the Galactic Disk

We present the analysis of chemical abundances and kinematics for six hypervelocity star (HVS) candidates. These objects are G/K-type low-mass stars in the Galactic disk, while other HVSs previously found are B-type high-mass objects in the Galactic halo. The stellar orbits and kinematics of our HVS candidates suggest that they do not originate in the Galactic center or in an accretion event, indicative of yet-unknown mechanisms that produce kinematically-extreme disk stars. In order to study in detail their origin, we obtained medium-resolution (R~6000) spectra of these stars and derived abundances of several chemical elements (Mg, Ca, Si, Ti, Cr, Fe, and Ni). From the comparison of the chemical abundances with the Galactic stellar components (disk, bulge, halo, and dwarf galaxies) and the kinematic properties of our HVSs, we conclude that two of them are likely ejected from the Galactic disk, one originated from the Galactic center as for the young B-type HVSs, and the other one might be ejected from either the Galactic disk or other regions.