Deep SDSS optical spectroscopy of distant halo stars II. Iron, calcium, and magnesium abundances
E. Fernández-Alvar, C. Allende Prieto, K. J. Schlesinger, T. C. Beers, A. C. Robin, D. P. Schneider, Y. S. Lee, D. Bizyaev, G. Ebelke, E. Malanushenko, V. Malan… 展开作者
E. Fernández-Alvar, C. Allende Prieto, K. J. Schlesinger, T. C. Beers, A. C. Robin, D. P. Schneider, Y. S. Lee, D. Bizyaev, G. Ebelke, E. Malanushenko, V. Malanushenko, D. Oravetz, K. Pan, A. Simmons
We analyze a sample of 3,944 low-resolution (R ~ 2000) optical spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), focusing on stars with effective temperatures 5800 < Teff < 6300 K, and distances from the Milky Way plane in excess of 5 kpc, and determine their abundances of Fe, Ca, and Mg. We followed the same methodology as in the previous paper in this series, deriving atmospheric parameters by chi2 minimization, but this time we obtained the abundances of individual elements by fitting their associated spectral lines. Distances were calculated from absolute magnitudes obtained by a statistical comparison of our stellar parameters with stellar-evolution models. The observations reveal a decrease in the abundances of iron, calcium, and magnesium at large distances from the Galactic center. The median abundances for the halo stars analyzed are fairly constant up to a Galactocentric distance r ~ 20 kpc, rapidly decrease between r ~ 20 and r ~ 40 kpc, and flatten out to significantly lower values at larger distances, consistent with previous studies. In addition, we examine the [Ca/Fe] and [Mg/Fe] as a function of Fe/H and Galactocentric distance. Our results show that the most distant parts of the halo show a steeper variation of the [Ca/Fe] and [Mg/Fe] with iron. We found that at the range -1.6 < [Fe/H] < -0.4 [Ca/Fe] decreases with distance, in agreement with earlier results based on local stars. However, the opposite trend is apparent for [Mg/Fe]. Our conclusion that the outer regions of the halo are more metal-poor than the inner regions, based on in situ observations of distant stars, agrees with recent results based on inferences from the kinematics of more local stars, and with predictions of recent galaxy formation simulations for galaxies similar to the Milky Way.
New molecular line lists for calcium monohydride ($^{40}$Ca$^{1}$H) and magnesium monohydride ($^{24}$Mg$^{1}$H) and its minor isotopologues ($^{25}$Mg$^{1}$H and $^{26}$Mg$^{1}$H) are presented. The rotation-vibration-electronic (rovibronic) line lists, named \texttt{XAB}, consider transitions involving the \X, \A, and \BBp\ electronic states in the 0--30\,000~cm$^{-1}$ region (wavelengths $λ> 0.33$~$μ$m) and are suitable for temperatures up to 5000 K. A comprehensive analysis of the published spectroscopic literature on CaH and MgH is used to obtain new extensive datasets of accurate rovibro…
We present an analysis of intermediate-dispersion spectra and photometric data of the newly identified cool, polluted white dwarf NLTT19868. The spectra obtained with X-shooter on the Very Large Telescope (VLT)-Melipal show strong lines of calcium, and several lines of magnesium, aluminium and iron. We use these spectra and the optical-to-near infrared spectral energy distribution to constrain the atmospheric parameters of NLTT19868. Our analysis shows that NLTT19868 is iron poor with respect to aluminium and calcium. A comparison with other cool, polluted white dwarfs shows that the Fe to Ca …
We report on a detailed abundance study of the fairly bright slow rotators HD 30085 (A0 IV), HD 30963 (B9 III) and HD 174567 (A0 V), hitherto reported as normal stars and the sharp-lined chi Lupi A (B9 IV HgMn). In the spectra of HD 30085, HD 30963, the Hg II line at 3984 A line is conspicuous and numerous lines of silicon, manganese, chromium, titanium, iron, strontium, yttrium and zirconium appear to be strong absorbers. A comparison of the mean spectra of HD 30085 and HD 30963 with a grid of synthetic spectra for selected unblended lines having reliable updated atomic data reveals large ove…
The most metal-poor stars are the relics of the early chemical evolution of the Galaxy. Their chemical composition is an important tool to constrain the nucleosynthesis in the first generation of stars. The aim is to observe a sample of extremely metal-poor star (EMP stars) candidates selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 (SDSS DR12) and determine their chemical composition. We obtain medium resolution spectra of a sample of six stars using the X-Shooter spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and we used ATLAS models to compute the abundances. Five stars of the sam…
We present an elemental-abundance analysis of an extremely metal-poor (EMP; [Fe/H] < -3.0) star, SDSS J134338.67+484426.6, identified during the course of the MARVELS spectroscopic pre-survey of some 20000 stars to identify suitable candidates for exoplanet searches. This star, with an apparent magnitude V = 12.14, is the lowest metallicity star found in the pre-survey, and is one of only ~20 known EMP stars that are this bright or brighter. Our high-resolution spectroscopic analysis shows that this star is a subgiant with [Fe/H] = -3.42, having "normal" carbon and no enhancement of neutron-ca…
The white dwarf SDSS J124043.01+671034.68 (SDSS J1240+6710) was previously found to have an oxygen-dominated atmosphere with significant traces of neon, magnesium, and silicon. A possible origin via a violent late thermal pulse or binary interactions have been suggested to explain this very unusual photospheric composition. We report the additional detection of carbon, sodium, and aluminium in far-ultraviolet and optical follow-up spectroscopy. No iron-group elements are detected, with tight upper limits on iron, cobalt and nickel, suggesting that the star underwent partial oxygen burning, but…
We present the results of an analysis for 107 extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars with metallicities less than [Fe/H] = -3.0, identified from medium-resolution spectra in SDSS. We follow a methodology based on comparisons of the observed spectra with synthetic spectra. The abundances of Fe, Ca, and Mg are determined by fitting spectral regions dominated by lines of each element. In addition, we present a technique to determine upper limits for elements whose features are not detected in a given spectrum. We also analyse our sample with the SEGUE Stellar Parameter Pipeline, in order to obtain addi…
Extremely metal-poor stars are keys to understand the early evolution of our Galaxy. The ESO large programme TOPoS has been tailored to analyse a new set of metal-poor turn-off stars, whereas most of the previously known extremely metal-poor stars are giant stars. Sixty five turn-off stars (preselected from SDSS spectra) have been observed with the X-Shooter spectrograph at the ESO VLT Unit Telescope 2, to derive accurate and detailed abundances of magnesium, silicon, calcium, iron, strontium and barium. We analysed medium-resolution spectra (R ~ 10 000) obtained with the ESO X-Shooter spectro…
Determining elemental abundances of bulge stars can, via chemical evolution modeling, help to understand the formation and evolution of the bulge. Recently there have been claims both for and against the bulge having a different [$α$/Fe] vs. [Fe/H]-trend as compared to the local thick disk possibly meaning a faster, or at least different, formation time scale of the bulge as compared to the local thick disk. We aim to determine the abundances of oxygen, magnesium, calcium, and titanium in a sample of 46 bulge K-giants, 35 of which have been analyzed for oxygen and magnesium in previous works, …
The most metal-poor stars in the Milky Way witnessed the early phases of formation of the Galaxy, and have chemical compositions that are close to the pristine mixture from Big Bang nucleosynthesis, polluted by one or few supernovae. Only two dozen stars with ([Fe/H]< -4) are known, and they show a wide range of abundance patterns. It is therefore important to enlarge this sample. We present the first results of an effort to identify new extremely metal-poor stars in the Milky Way halo. Our targets have been selected from low-resolution spectra obtained as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,…
For three stars in the ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxy Bootes I we have determined the atmospheric parameters, performed a new reduction of high-resolution spectra from the Subaru archive, and derived the abundances of eight chemical elements without using the LTE assumption. As a result, among the galaxies of its class Bootes I now has the largest sample of stars (11) with a homogeneous set of atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances, and this makes it the most promising for studying the chemical evolution of UFD galaxies. We show that in the range -3<[Fe/H]<-2 for each of the three $α$-…
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…
We present Iron, Magnesium, Calcium, and Titanium abundances for 235 stars in the central region of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (within 9.0 arcmin ~70 pc from the center) from medium-resolution Keck/DEIMOS spectra. All the considered stars belong to the massive globular cluster M54 or to the central nucleus of the galaxy (Sgr,N). In particular we provide abundances for 109 stars with [Fe/H] > -1.0, more than doubling the available sample of spectroscopic metallicity and alpha-elements abundance estimates for Sgr dSph stars in this metallicity regime. Also, we find the first confirm…
We report the discovery of the carbon-rich ultra metal-poor unevolved star J0815+4729. This dwarf star was selected from SDSS/BOSS as a metal-poor candidate and follow-up spectroscopic observations at medium-resolution were obtained with ISIS at William Herschel Telescope and OSIRIS at Gran Telescopio de Canarias. We use the FERRE code to derive the main stellar parameters, Teff=6215+-82 K, and logg=4.7+-0.5, an upper limit to the metallicity of [Fe/H]<~-5.8, and a carbon abundance of [C/Fe]>~+5.0, while [alpha/Fe]=0.4 is assumed. The metallicity upper limit is based on the Ca II K line, that …
In this paper, we aim to derive high-precision alpha-element abundances using CRIRES high-resolution IR spectra of 72 cool M giants of the inner Galactic bulge. Silicon, magnesium, and calcium abundances were determined by fitting a synthetic spectrum for each star. We also incorporated recent theoretical data into our spectroscopic analysis (i.e. updated K-band line list, better broadening parameter estimation, non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) corrections). We compare these inner bulge alpha abundance trends with those of solar neighbourhood stars observed with IGRINS using the same…
