Discovery of a significant population of CN-enhanced red clump stars in the Milky Way bulge: Implications for the formation of early-type galaxies

We report our discovery of a significant population of CN-enhanced red clump stars in the classical bulge component of the Milky Way. Since CN-rich stars trace a population with enhanced Helium, Nitrogen, and Sodium originated in globular clusters (GCs), this is a direct evidence that proto-GCs were the major building blocks in the formation of the classical bulges and early-type galaxies in the hierarchical merging paradigm.