We present the N, O, F and Na abundance and 12C/13C isotopic ratio measurements or upper limits for a sample of 10 C-rich, metal-poor giant stars, eight enhanced in s-process (CEMP-s) elements and two poor in n-capture elements (CEMP-no). The abundances are derived from IR, K-band, high-resolution CRIRES@VLT spectra obtained.
The metallicity of our sample ranges from [Fe/H]=-3.4 to -1.3. F abundance could be measured only in two CEMP-s stars. With [F/Fe]=0.64, one is mildly F-overabundant, while the other is F-rich, at [F/Fe]=1.44. For the remaining eight objects, including both CEMP-no in our sample, only upper limits on F abundance could be placed. Our measurements and upper limits show that there is a spread in [F/C+N] ratio in CEMP-s stars as predicted by theory. Predictions from nucleosynthetic models for low-mass, low-metallicity Asymptotic Giant Branch stars, account for the derived F abundances, while the upper limits on F content derived for most of the stars are lower than the predicted values. The measured Na content is accounted for by AGB models in the 1.25 to 1.7 Msun range, confirming that the stars responsible for the peculiar abundance pattern observed in CEMP-s stars are low-mass, low-metallicity AGB stars, in agreement with the most accepted astrophysical scenario. We conclude that the mechanism of F production in current state-of-the-art low-metallicity low-mass AGB models needs further scrutiny and that F measurements in a larger number of metal-poor stars are needed to better constraint the models.
Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are considered to be among the most significant contributors to the fluorine budget in our Galaxy. While at close-to-solar metallicity observations and theory agree, at lower metallicities stellar models overestimate the fluorine production with respect to heavy elements. We present ${}^{19}$F nucleosynthesis results for a set of AGB models with different masses and metallicities in which magnetic buoyancy acts as the driving process for the formation of the ${}^{13}$C neutron source (the so-called ${}^{13}$C pocket). We find that ${}^{19}$F is mainly produc…
Fluorine (19F) abundances (or upper limits) are derived in six extragalactic AGB carbon stars from the HF(1-0) R9 line at 2.3358 mu in high resolution spectra. The stars belong to the Local Group galaxies LMC, SMC and Carina dwarf spheroidal, spanning more than a factor 50 in metallicity. This is the first study to probe the behaviour of F with metallicity in intrinsic extragalactic C-rich AGB stars. Fluorine could be measured only in four of the target stars, showing a wide range in F-enhancements. Our F abundance measurements together with those recently derived in Galactic AGB carbon stars …
The cosmic origin of fluorine is still not well constrained. Several nucleosynthetic channels at different phases of stellar evolution have been suggested, but these must be constrained by observations. For this, the fluorine abundance trend with metallicity spanning a wide range is required. Our aim is to determine stellar abundances of fluorine for -1.1<[Fe/H]<+0.4. We determine the abundances from HF lines in infrared K-band spectra (at 2.3 microns) of cool giants, observed with the IGRINS and Phoenix high-resolution spectrographs. We derive accurate stellar parameters for all our observed …
The abundance of fluorine is determined from the (2-0) R9 2.3358 micron feature of the molecule HF for several dozen normal G and K stars in the Galactic thin disk from spectra obtained with the Phoenix IR spectrometer on the 2.1-m telescope at Kitt Peak. The abundances are analyzed in the context of Galactic chemical evolution to explore the contributions of supernovae and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars to the abundance of fluorine in the thin disk. The average abundance of fluorine in the thin disk is found to be [F/Fe] = +0.23 +/- 0.03, and the [F/Fe] ratio is flat or declines slowly w…
With abundances and 2σ upper limits of fluorine (F) in seven metal-poor field giants, nucleosynthesis of stellar F at low metallicity is discussed. The measurements are derived from the HF(1-0) R9 line at 23358Å using nearinfrared K-band high-resolution spectra obtained with CRIRES at the Very Large Telescope. The sample reaches lower metallicities than previous studies on F of field giants, ranging from [Fe/H] = -1.56 down to -2.13. Effects of three-dimensional model atmospheres on the derived F and O abundances are quantitatively estimated and shown to be insignificant for the program stars.…
Long-lived stars in GCs exhibit chemical peculiarities with respect to their halo counterparts. In particular, Na-enriched stars are identified as belonging to a 2d stellar population born from cluster material contaminated by the H-burning ashes of a 1st stellar population. Their presence and numbers in different locations of the CMDs provide important constraints on the self-enrichment scenarios. In particular, the ratio of Na-poor to Na-rich stars on the AGB has recently been found to vary strongly from cluster to cluster, while it is relatively constant on the RGB. We investigate the impac…
Fluorine is a fairly good tracer of formation histories of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters as already revealed by several studies. Large variations in fluorine abundance in red giant stars of the globular cluster M22 have been recently reported by two different groups. Futhermore, one of these studies claims that the abundance of fluorine is anti-correlated with sodium abundances in this cluster, leading to strong conclusions on the chemical history of M22. To validate this important finding, we re-examine the F abundance determinations of some of the previously studied stars…
The chemical evolution of fluorine is investigated in a sample of Milky Way red giantstars that span a significant range in metallicity from [Fe/H] $\sim$ -1.3 to 0.0 dex. Fluorine abundances are derived from vibration-rotation lines of HF in high-resolution infraredspectra near $λ$ 2.335 $μ$m. The red giants are members of the thin and thick disk / halo,with two stars being likely members of the outer disk Monoceros overdensity. At lowermetallicities, with [Fe/H]<-0.4 to -0.5, the abundance of F varies as a primary element with respect to the Fe abundance, with a constant subsolar value of [F…
Revised spectroscopic parameters for the HF molecule and a new CN line list in the 2.3 mu region have been recently available, allowing a revision of the F content in AGB stars. AGB carbon stars are the only observationally confirmed sources of fluorine. Nowadays there is not a consensus on the relevance of AGB stars in its Galactic chemical evolution. The aim of this article is to better constrain the contribution of these stars with a more accurate estimate of their fluorine abundances. Using new spectroscopic tools and LTE spectral synthesis, we redetermine fluorine abundances from several …
We present chemical abundances for the elements carbon, sodium, and fluorine in 15 red giants of the globular cluster M 4, as well as six red giants of the globular cluster $ω$ Centauri. The chemical abundances were calculated in LTE via spectral synthesis. The spectra analyzed are high-resolution spectra obtained in the near-infrared region around $λ$2.3$μ$m with the Phoenix spectrograph on the 8.1m Gemini South Telescope, the IGRINS spectrograph on the McDonald Observatory 2.7m Telescope, and the CRIRES spectrograph on the ESO 8.2m Very Large Telescope. The results indicate a significant red…
The horizontal branch (HB) morphology of globular clusters (GC) is mainly governed by metallicity. The second parameter problem, well known since the 60's, states that metallicity alone is not enough to describe the observed HB morphology of many GCs. Despite many efforts to resolve this issue, the second parameter phenomenon still remains without a satisfactory explanation. We have analyzed blue, red-HB, and RR-Lyrae stars in the GC M4 and studied their Fe, Na, and O abundances. Our goal is to investigate possible connections between the bimodal HB of M4 and the chemical signatures of the two…
The origin of fluorine is a longstanding problem in nuclear astrophysics. It is widely recognized that Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are among the most important contributors to the Galactic fluorine production. In general, extant nucleosynthesis models overestimate the fluorine production by AGB stars with respect to observations. In this paper we review the relevant nuclear reaction rates involved in the fluorine production/destruction. We perform this analysis on a model with initial mass M=2 M$_\odot$ and Z=0.001. We found that the major uncertainties are due to the $^{13}$C($α$,n)$^…
In these proceedings we present initial results of a spectroscopic analysis of a small sample of evolved K-giants in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. We derive the effective temperature, surface gravity and microturbulence of all targets using standard methods. Further we derive LTE abundances of [Fe/H] and [O/Fe] as well as the abundance of sodium, using NLTE corrections. We find a mean metallicity for the cluster of [Fe/H]$=-0.75\pm0.10$, in excellent agreement with several other studies. Also, we confirm the sodium-oxygen anticorrelation previously reported by a number of other authors. Fin…
Probing the first generations of massive stars through fluorine in CEMP-no stars
Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelle(布鲁塞尔自由大学天文学与天体物理研究所);BLU-ULB, Brussels Laboratory of the Universe(宇宙布鲁塞尔实验室);Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva(日内瓦大学天文学系)
Omega Centauri is no longer the only globular cluster known to contain multiple stellar populations, yet it remains the most puzzling. Due to the extreme way in which the multiple stellar population phenomenon manifests in this cluster, it has been suggested that it may be the remnant of a larger stellar system. In this work, we present a spectroscopic investigation of the stellar populations hosted in the globular cluster Omega Centauri to shed light on its, still puzzling, chemical enrichment history. With this aim we used FLAMES+GIRAFFE@VLT to observe 300 stars distributed along the multimo…
The open cluster NGC 6791 is among the oldest, most massive and metal-rich open clusters in the Galaxy. High-resolution $H$-band spectra from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) of 11 red giants in NGC 6791 are analyzed for their chemical abundances of iron, oxygen, and sodium. The abundances of these three elements are found to be homogeneous (with abundance dispersions at the level of $\sim$ 0.05 - 0.07 dex) in these cluster red giants, which span much of the red-giant branch (T$_{\rm eff}$ $\sim$ 3500K - 4600K), and include two red-clump giants. From the infr…
Galactic globular clusters (GC) are known to have multiple stellar populations and be characterised by similar chemical features, e.g. O-Na anti-correlation. While second-population stars, identified by their Na overabundance, have been found from the main sequence turn-off up to the tip of the red giant branch in various Galactic GCs, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars have rarely been targeted. The recent finding that NGC 6752 lacks an Na-rich AGB star has thus triggered new studies on AGB stars in GCs, since this result questions our basic understanding of GC formation and stellar evolutio…
The abundance of fluorine in a few Galactic globular clusters is known to strongly vary from star-to-star. These unexpected chemical properties are an additional confirmation of the chemical inhomogeneities already found in several GC, and probably caused by the first generations of stars formed in these systems. The aim of this article is to complement our understanding of the F-behaviour in GC stars and to look for new constraints on the formation histories of their multiple stellar populations. We have collected near-IR spectra of 15 RGB stars belonging to GC spanning a wide range of metall…
A radial velocity follow-up of the long-period sdOB+G1V type spectroscopic binary SB 744 revealed strong lines of fluorine and lead in the optical spectrum of the sdOB star and subsolar metallicity in the G1V companion. With high-quality observations and Gaia astrometric data, we aim at measuring the chemical composition and Galactic kinematics of the system to put it in context with known populations of hot subdwarfs. Such binary systems have high potential, as they give insights into the late stages of binary evolution as well as into the mysterious formation of stripped core helium-burning …
Context: We present the physical and chemical properties of intermediate-mass stars models of low metallicity, evolved along the thermal pulse phase. Aims: The target of this work is to extend to low metallicities, Z=1,2 and 6 x 10^{-4}, the models previously computed for chemistries typical of Globular Clusters of an intermediate metallicity (Z=0.001), and for the most metal-rich clusters found in our Galaxy (Z=0.004); the main goal is to test the self-enrichment scenario also for metal poor Globular Clusters Methods: We calculated three grids of intermediate-mass models with metallicities Z=…
We investigate aluminum abundance variations in the stellar populations of globular clusters using both literature measurements of sodium and aluminum and APOGEE measurements of nitrogen and aluminum abundances. For the latter, we show that the Payne is the most suitable of the five available abundance pipelines for our purposes. Our combined sample of 42 globular clusters spans approximately 2 dex in [Fe/H] and 1.5 dex in $\log{M_{GC}/M_{\odot}}$. We find no fewer than five globular clusters with significant internal variations in nitrogen and/or sodium with little-to-no corresponding variati…
We investigate the main physical properties of low-metallicity Asymptotic Giant Branch stars, with the aim of quantifying the uncertainties that presently affect the predicted chemical yields of these stars, associated to mass loss and description of molecular opacities. We find that above a threshold mass, M ~ 3.5Msun for Z=0.001, the results are little dependent on the opacity treatment, as long as hot-bottom burning prevents the surface C/O ratio from exceeding unity; the yields of these massive AGB stars are expected to be mostly determined by the efficiency of convection, with a relativel…
We aim to determine abundances of Li, O and Na in a sample of of 110 turn-off (TO) stars, in order to study the evolution of light elements in this cluster and to put our results in perspective with observations of other globular and open clusters, as well as with field stars. We use medium resolution spectra obtained with the GIRAFFE spectrograph at the ESO 8.2m Kueyen VLT telescope and use state of the art 1D model atmospheres and NLTE line transfer to determine the abundances. We also employ CO5BOLD hydrodynamical simulations to assess the impact of stellar granulation on the line formation…
The center of the Milky Way contains stellar populations spanning a range in age and metallicity, with a recent star formation burst producing young and massive stars. Chemical abundances in the most luminous stellar member of the Nuclear Star Cluster (NSC), IRS 7, are presented for $^{19}$F, $^{12}$C, $^{13}$C, $^{14}$N, $^{16}$O, $^{17}$O, and Fe from an LTE analysis based on spherical modeling and radiative transfer with a 25M$_{\odot}$ model atmosphere, whose chemistry was tailored to the derived photospheric abundances. We find IRS 7 to be depleted heavily in both $^{12}$C (~-0.8 dex) and…
We investigate the use of the gravity sensitive neutral sodium (NaI) doublet at 8183 Angstroms 8195 Angstroms (Na 8200 Angstrom doublet) as an age indicator for M dwarfs. We measured the Na doublet equivalent width (EW) in giants, old dwarfs, young dwarfs, and candidate members of the Beta Pic moving group using medium resolution spectra. Our Na 8200 Angstrom doublet EW analysis shows that the feature is useful as an approximate age indicator in M-type dwarfs with (V-K_s) >= 5.0, reliably distinguishing stars older and younger than 100 Myr. A simple derivation of the dependence of the Na EW on…
Recent exam of large samples of omega Cen giants shows that it shares with mono-metallic globular clusters the presence of the sodium versus oxygen anticorrelation, within each subset of stars with iron content in the range -1.9<~[Fe/H]<~-1.3. These findings suggest that, while the second generation formation history in omega Cen is more complex than that of mono-metallic clusters, it shares some key steps with those simpler cluster. In addition, the giants in the range -1.3<[Fe/H]<~-0.7 show a direct O--Na correlation, at moderately low O, but Na up to 20 times solar. These peculiar Na abunda…
Noble gases Neon and argon: a role for the chemical patterns of multiple populations in globular clusters?
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma(国家天体物理研究所罗马天文台);Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia Augusto Righi, Università degli Studi di Bologna(博洛尼亚大学奥古斯托·里基物理与天文系);Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova(国家天体物理研究所帕多瓦天文台);Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Univ. di Padova(帕多瓦大学伽利略·伽利莱物理与天文系)
In this paper we present an homogeneous analysis of photospheric abundances based on high-resolution spectroscopy of a sample of 182 barium stars and candidates. We determined atmospheric parameters, spectroscopic distances, stellar masses, ages, luminosities and scale height, radial velocities, abundances of the Na, Al, $alpha$-elements, iron-peak elements, and s-process elements Y, Zr, La, Ce, and Nd. We employed the local-thermodynamic-equilibrium model atmospheres of Kurucz and the spectral analysis code {\sc moog}. We found that the metallicities, the temperatures and the surface gravitie…
The chemical evolution of the Universe is governed by the chemical yields from stars, which in turn is determined primarily by the initial stellar mass. Even stars as low as 0.9Msun can, at low metallicity, contribute to the chemical evolution of elements. Stars less massive than about 10Msun experience recurrent mixing events that can significantly change the surface composition of the envelope, with observed enrichments in carbon, nitrogen, fluorine, and heavy elements synthesized by the slow neutron capture process (the s-process). Low and intermediate mass stars release their nucleosynthes…
Stellar evolution models predict that internal mixing should cause some sodium overabundance at the surface of red giants more massive than ~ 1.5--2.0 Msun. The surface aluminium abundance should not be affected. Nevertheless, observational results disagree about the presence and/or the degree of the Na and Al overabundances. In addition, Galactic chemical evolution models adopting different stellar yields lead to quite different predictions for the behavior of [Na/Fe] and [Al/Fe] versus [Fe/H]. Overall, the observed trends of these abundances with metallicity are not well reproduced. We readd…
[Abridged] Barium stars are moderately rare, chemically peculiar objects, which are believed to be the result of the pollution of an otherwise normal star by material from an evolved companion on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). We aim to derive carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine abundances for the first time from the infrared spectra of the barium red giant star HD 123396 to quantitatively test AGB nucleosynthesis models for producing barium stars via mass accretion. High-resolution and high S/N infrared spectra were obtained using the Phoenix spectrograph mounted at the Gemini South te…
We follow the scenario of formation of second generation stars in globular clusters by matter processed by hot bottom burning (HBB) in massive asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and Super AGB stars (SAGB). In the cluster NGC 2419 we assume the presence of an extreme population directly formed from the AGB and SAGB ejecta, so we can directly compare the yields for a metallicity Z=0.0003 with the chemical inventory of the cluster NGC 2419. At such a low metallicity, the HBB temperatures (well above 108K) allow a very advanced nucleosynthesis. Masses of about 6Mo deplete Mg and synthesize Si, go…
M22 is an anomalous globular cluster that hosts two groups of stars with different metallicity and s-element abundance. The star-to-star light-element variations in both groups, with the presence of individual Na-O and C-N anticorrelations, demonstrates that this Milky-Way satellite has experienced a complex star-formation history. We have analysed FLAMES/UVES spectra for seven stars covering a small color interval, on the reddest horizontal-branch (HB) portion of this cluster and investigated possible relations between the chemical composition of a star and its location along the HB. Our chem…
Context: Open clusters are very useful targets for examining possible trends in galactocentric distance and age, especially when young and old open clusters are compared. Aims: We carried out a detailed spectroscopic analysis to derive the chemical composition of seven red giants in the young open cluster NGC 3114. Abundances of C, N, O, Li, Na, Mg, Al, Ca, Si, Ti, Ni, Cr, Y, Zr, La, Ce, and Nd were obtained, as well as the carbon isotopic ratio. Methods: The atmospheric parameters of the studied stars and their chemical abundances were determined using high-resolution optical spectroscopy. We…
We present abundances for seven stars in the (extremely) low-metallicity tail of the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy, from spectra taken with X-shooter on the ESO VLT. Targets were selected from the Ca II triplet (CaT) survey of the Dwarf Abundances and Radial Velocities Team (DART) using the latest calibration. Of the seven extremely metal-poor candidates, five stars are confirmed to be extremely metal-poor (i.e., [Fe/H]<-3 dex), with [Fe/H]=-3.47 +/- 0.07 for our most metal-poor star. All are around or below [Fe/H]=-2.5 dex from the measurement of individual Fe lines. These values are in ag…
Using spectra obtained with the VLT/FORS2 and Gemini-S/GMOS instruments we have investigated carbon, nitrogen and sodium abundances in a sample of red giants in the Small Magellanic Cloud cluster Kron 3. The metallicity and luminosity of this cluster are comparable to those of Galactic globular clusters although with a notably younger age of $\sim$ 6.5 Gyr. Specifically we have investigated the strengths of the CH ($λ$ 4300 A) and CN ($λ$ 3800, $λ$ 4215) molecular bands finding a bimodality of CN band-strengths and a CH/CN anti-correlation. Application of spectrum synthesis techniques reveals …
Recent studies have confirmed the long standing suspicion that M22 shares a metallicity spread and complex chemical enrichment history similar to that observed in Omega Cen. M22 is among the most massive Galactic globular clusters and its colour-magnitude diagram and chemical abundances reveal the existence of sub-populations. To further constrain the chemical diversity of M22, necessary to interpret its nucleosynthetic history, we seek to measure relative abundance ratios of key elements (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine) best studied, or only available, using high-resolution spectra at…
Context: Homogeneous investigations of red giant stars in open clusters contribute to studies of internal evolutionary mixing processes inside stars, which are reflected in abundances of mixing-sensitive chemical elements like carbon, nitrogen, and sodium, while alpha- and neutron-capture element abundances are useful in tracing the Galactic chemical evolution. Aims: The main aim of this study is a comprehensive chemical analysis of red giant stars in the open cluster IC 4756, including determinations of 12C/13C and C/N abundance ratios, and comparisons of the results with theoretical models o…
The surface abundances of extreme helium (EHe) and R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars are discussed in terms of the merger of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf with a helium white dwarf. The model is expressed as a linear mixture of the individual layers of both constituent white dwarfs, taking account of the specific evolution of each star. In developing this recipe from previous versions, particular attention has been given to the inter-shell abundances of the asymptotic giant branch star which evolved to become the carbon-oxygen white dwarf. Thus the surface composition of the merged star is estimate…
Lithium is one of the few elements produced during the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis in the early universe. Moreover, its fragility makes it useful as a proxy for stellar environmental conditions. As such, the lithium abundance in old systems is at the core of different astrophysical problems. Stars in the lower red giant branch allow studying globular clusters where main sequence stars are too faint to be observed. We use these stars to analyze the initial Li content of the clusters and compare it to cosmological predictions, to measure spreads in Li between different stellar populations, and to s…
The chemical abundance ratios and radial velocities for two stars in the recently discovered Triangulum II faint dwarf galaxy have been determined from high resolution, medium signal-to-noise ratio spectra from the Gemini-GRACES facility. These stars have stellar parameters and metallicities similar to those derived from their photometry and medium-resolution Ca II triplet spectra, and supports that Triangulum II has a metallicity spread consistent with chemical evolution in a dwarf galaxy. The elemental abundances show that both stars have typical calcium abundances and barium upper limits fo…
Many observed CEMP stars are found in binary systems and show enhanced abundances of $s$-elements. The origin of the chemical abundances of these CEMP-$s$ stars is believed to be accretion in the past of enriched material from a primary star in the AGB phase. We investigate the mechanism of mass transfer and the process of nucleosynthesis in low-metallicity AGB stars by modelling the binary systems in which the observed CEMP-$s$ stars were formed. For this purpose we compare a sample of $67$ CEMP-$s$ stars with a grid of binary stars generated by our binary evolution and nucleosynthesis model.…
We present the first spectroscopic abundance determination of iron, alpha-elements (Si, Ca and Ti) and sodium for the Mira variable V1 in the metal-rich globular cluster NGC 5927. We use high-resolution (R~ 28,000), high signal-to-noise ratio (~200) spectra collected with WINERED, a near-infrared (NIR) spectrograph covering simultaneously the wavelength range 0.91--1.35 micron. The effective temperature and the surface gravity at the pulsation phase of the spectroscopic observation were estimated using both optical (V) and NIR time-series photometric data. We found that the Mira is metal-rich …
Oxygen abundances of 67 dwarf stars in the metallicity range -1.6<[Fe/H]<-0.4 are derived from a non-LTE analysis of the 777 nm O I triplet lines. These stars have precise atmospheric parameters measured by Nissen and Schuster, who find that they separate into three groups based on their kinematics and alpha-element (Mg, Si, Ca, Ti) abundances: thick-disk, high-alpha halo, and low-alpha halo. We find the oxygen abundance trends of thick-disk and high-alpha halo stars very similar. The low-alpha stars show a larger star-to-star scatter in [O/Fe] at a given [Fe/H] and have systematically lower o…
We investigate possible relations between the abundances of zinc and the light elements sodium, magnesium, and potassium in the atmospheres ofred giant branch (RGB) stars of the Galactic globular cluster 47~Tuc and study connections between the chemical composition and dynamical properties of the cluster RGB stars. The abundance of zinc was determined in 27 RGB stars of 47~Tuc using 1D local thermal equilibrium (LTE) synthetic line profile fitting to the high-resolution 2dF spectra obtained with the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). Synthetic spectra used in the fitting procedure were computed…
The light elements Li, O, Na, Al, and Mg are known to show star to star variations in the globular clusters 47 Tuc and NGC 6752. Such variations are interpreted as due to processing in a previous generation of stars. In this paper we investigate the abundances of the alpha-element sulphur, for which no previous measurements exist. In fact this element has not been investigated in any Galactic globular cluster so far. The only globular cluster for which such measurements are available is Terzan 7, which belongs to the Sgr dSph. We use high resolution spectra of the S I Mult. 1, acquired with th…
Context. Globular clusters are known to host multiple stellar populations, which are a signature of their formation process. The globular cluster E3 is one of the few low-mass globulars that is thought not to host multiple populations. Aims. We investigate red giant branch stars in E3 with the aim of providing a first detailed chemical inventory for this cluster, we determine its radial velocity, and we provide additional insights into the possible presence of multiple populations in this cluster. Methods. We obtained high-resolution FLAMES-UVES/VLT spectra of four red giant branch stars likel…