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arXiv 1109.4013astro-ph.GA
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水平支星中的Na-O关系。I. NGC 2808

The Na-O anticorrelation in horizontal branch stars. I. NGC 2808

R. G. Gratton, S. Lucatello, E. Carretta, A. Bragaglia, V. D'Orazi, Y. Al Momany

摘要:

球状星团已经被认为是多个恒星星族的宿主。一个引人注目的例子是巨大的星系团NGC 2808,在那里沿着水平分支(HB)和主层序(MS)发现了多个种群。对红巨星的研究表明,就Fe丰度而言,这个星团似乎是均匀的,但它显示了Na和O丰度之间的扩展关系。贫Na富O的群体可以用红色MS识别,而富Na贫O的群体可以用蓝色MS识别。这可以从不同的He含量来理解,He与Na相关。对这种情况的预测是,富氦、富钠的氦核燃烧恒星,因为它们的质量较小,最终将位于HB的蓝色部分,而贫氦、贫钠的恒星将位于红色HB。本文的目的是验证这一预测。为此,我们获得了高分辨率光谱的区域,包括强O和Na线在几十个HB星的NGC 2808,采样的红,蓝部分的HB。我们将我们的分析限制在那些比11,500 K的间隙更冷的蓝色HB恒星上,因为已知扩散和辐射压力会强烈改变温暖恒星的大气成分。我们确实发现了HB星的颜色与它们的Na和O丰度之间的严格对应关系:所有的蓝色HB星都非常贫O和富Na。此外,我们还发现,虽然所有的红HB星都比蓝HB星更富O和贫Na,但它们之间也存在中等的Na-O关系。这种关系反过来又与红色HB星的颜色有关。这些结果加强了Na和O丰度与第二参数现象之间的联系,并表明NGC 2808中有三个以上的恒星星族,因为只有一小部分红HB星属于该星团的原始星族。

英文摘要:

Globular clusters have been recognized to host multiple stellar populations. A spectacular example of this is the massive cluster NGC2808, where multiple populations have been found along the horizontal branch (HB) and the main sequence (MS). Studies of red giants showed that this cluster appears homogeneous insofar Fe abundance is concerned, but it shows an extended anticorrelation between Na and O abundances. The Na-poor, O-rich population can be identified with the red MS, and the Na-rich, O-poor one with the blue one. This may be understood in terms of different He content, He being correlated with Na. A prediction of this scenario is that He-rich, Na-rich He-core burning stars, because they are less massive, will end up on the bluer part of the HB, while He-poor, Na-poor stars will reside on the red HB. The aim of this paper is to verify this prediction. To this purpose, we acquired high-resolution spectra of regions including strong O and Na lines in several tens of HB stars of NGC2808, sampling both the red and blue parts of the HB. We limited our analysis to those blue HB stars cooler than the gap at 11,500 K, because diffusion and radiative pressure are known to strongly modify the atmospheric composition of warmer stars. We indeed found a strict correspondence between the colour of the HB stars and their Na and O abundances: all blue HB stars are very O-poor and Na-rich. In addition, we found that while all the red HB stars are more O-rich and Na-poor than the blue ones, there is a moderate Na-O anticorrelation among them as well. This anticorrelation is in turn related to the colour of the red HB stars. These results reinforce the connection between Na and O abundances and the second parameter phenomenon, and show that there are more than three stellar populations in NGC 2808 because only a fraction of the red HB stars belong to the primordial population of this cluster.

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