An enquiry on the origins of N-rich stars in the inner Galaxy basedon
  APOGEE chemical compositions
  Recent evidence based on APOGEE data for stars within a few kpc of the
Galactic centre suggests that dissolved globular clusters (GCs) contribute
significantly to the stellar mass budget of the inner halo. In this paper we
enquire into the origins of tracers of GC dissolution, N-rich stars, that are
located in the inner 4 kpc of the Milky Way. From an analysis of the chemical
compositions of these stars we establish that about 30% of the N-rich stars
previously identified in the inner Galaxy may have an accreted origin. This
result is confirmed by an analysis of the kinematic properties of our sample.
The specific frequency of N-rich stars is quite large in the accreted
population, exceeding that of its in situ counterparts by near an order of
magnitude, in disagreement with predictions from numerical simulations. We hope
that our numbers provide a useful test to models of GC formation and
destruction.
