There has been an incredibly large investment in obtaining high-resolution stellar spectra for determining chemical abundances of stars. This information is crucial to answer fundamental questions in Astronomy by constraining the formation and evolution scenarios of the Milky Way as well as the stars and planets residing in it.
We have just entered a new era, in which chemical abundances of FGK-type stars are being produced at industrial scales, where the observations, reduction, and analysis of the data are automatically performed by machines. Here we review the latest human efforts to assess the accuracy and precision of such industrial abundances by providing insights in the steps and uncertainties associated with the process of determining stellar abundances.
To do so, we highlight key issues in the process of spectral analysis for abundance determination, with special effort in disentangling sources of uncertainties. We also provide a description of current and forthcoming spectroscopic surveys, focusing on their reported abundances and uncertainties. This allows us to identify which elements and spectral lines are best and why. Finally, we make a brief selection of main scientific questions the community is aiming to answer with abundances.
Methods to determine abundances of the elements in the atmospheres of F, G, and K stars with precisions of 0.01-0.03 dex are reviewed. Such high-precision stellar abundances have led to the discovery of unexpected phenomena and relations with important bearings on the astrophysics of galaxies, stars, and planets, such as existence of discrete stellar populations in the Galactic disk and halo, differences in the relation between abundances and elemental condensation temperature for the Sun and solar twins, differences in chemical composition between binary star components and between members of…
Photometric investigations have revealed that Galactic globular clusters exhibit internal metallicity variations amongst the so-called first-population stars, until now considered to have a homogeneous initial chemical composition. This is not fully supported by the sparse spectroscopic evidence, which so far gives conflicting results. Here, we present a high-resolution re-analysis of five stars in the Galactic globular cluster NGC 2808 taken from the literature. Target stars are bright red giants with nearly identical atmospheric parameters belonging to the first population according to their…
HARPS spectra with signal-to-noise ratios S/N > 600 at 6000 A were analysed with MARCS model atmospheres to obtain 1D LTE abundances of C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, Sr, and Y for 72 nearby solar-type stars with metallicities in the range -0.3 < [Fe/H] < +0.3 and ASTEC stellar models were used to determine stellar ages from effective temperatures, luminosities obtained via Gaia DR2 parallaxes, and heavy element abundances. The resulting age-metallicity distribution appears to consist of two distinct populations: a sequence of old stars with a steep rise of [Fe/H] to about +0.3 dex …
The abundance of α-elements provides an important fossil signature in Galactic archaeology to trace the chemical evolution of the different disc populations. High-precision chemical abundances are crucial to improving our understanding of the chemodynamical properties present in the Galaxy. However, deriving precise abundance estimations in the metal-rich disc ([M/H] > 0 dex) is still challenging. The aim of this paper is to analyse different error sources affecting magnesium abundance estimations from optical spectra of metal-rich stars. We derived Mg abundances for 87522 high-resolution spec…
The fundamental stellar atmospheric parameters T_eff and log g and 13 chemical abundances are derived for medium-resolution spectroscopy from LAMOST Medium-Resolution Survey (MRS) data sets with a deep-learning method. The neural networks we designed, named as SPCANet, precisely map LAMOST MRS spectra to stellar parameters and chemical abundances. The stellar labels derived by SPCANet are with precisions of 119 K for T_eff and 0.17 dex for log g. The abundance precision of 11 elements including [C/H], [N/H], [O/H], [Mg/H], [Al/H], [Si/H], [S/H], [Ca/H], [Ti/H], [Cr/H], [Fe/H], and [Ni/H] are 0…
Increasingly powerful and multiplexed spectroscopic facilities promise detailed chemical abundance patterns for millions of resolved stars in galaxies beyond the Milky Way (MW). Here, we employ the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) to forecast the precision to which stellar abundances for metal-poor, low-mass stars outside the MW can be measured for 41 current (e.g., Keck, MMT, VLT, DESI) and planned (e.g., MSE, JWST, ELTs) spectrograph configurations. We show that moderate resolution ($R\lesssim5000$) spectroscopy at blue-optical wavelengths ($λ\lesssim4500$ Å) (i) enables the recovery of 2-4 tim…
We present our chemical abundance investigation of the metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-1.60 dex), r-process-enriched ([Eu/Fe]=0.73 dex) halo star HD 20 using novel and archival high-resolution spectra at outstanding signal-to-noise ratios. By combining one of the first asteroseismic gravity measurements in the metal-poor regime from a TESS light curve with non-LTE analyses of iron lines, we derive a set of highly accurate and precise stellar parameters. These allow us to delineate a chemical pattern comprised of solid detections of 48 elements, including 28 neutron-capture elements, which establishes HD 2…
In the era of industrial Galactic astronomy and multi-object spectroscopic stellar surveys, the sample sizes and the number of available stellar chemical abundances have reached dimensions in which it has become difficult to process all the available information in an effective manner. In this paper we demonstrate the use of a dimensionality-reduction technique (t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding; t-SNE) for analysing the stellar abundance-space distribution. While the non-parametric non-linear behaviour of this technique makes it difficult to estimate the significance of found abund…
High-Precision Near-Infrared Abundances of Solar Analogs in the YJ Bands
The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Kyoto Sangyo University（京都产业大学）；National Astronomical Observatory of Japan（日本国立天文台）；Tokyo Metropolitan University（东京都立大学）
HARPS Abundances with Korg I: 22 Element Abundances for 426 Red Giant Stars
School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Australian National University（澳大利亚国立大学天文与天体物理学院）；Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute（平顿研究所计算天体物理中心）
The metallicity spread, or the metallicity trend along the evolutionary sequence of a globular cluster, is a rich source of information to help understand the cluster physics (e.g. multiple populations) and stellar physics (e.g. atomic diffusion). Low-resolution integral-field-unit spectroscopy in the optical with the MUSE is an attractive prospect if it can provide these diagnostics because it allows us to extract spectra of a large fraction of the cluster stars. We investigate the possibilities of full-spectrum fitting to derive stellar parameters and chemical abundances at low spectral reso…
We implemented non-solar-scaled opacities in a simultaneous derivation of fundamental parameters and abundances. We carried out a high-precision stellar parameters and abundance determination by applying non-solar-scaled opacities and model atmospheres. Our sample is composed by 20 stars including main-sequence and evolved objects. Opacities for an arbitrary composition and vmicro were calculated through the Opacity Sampling method. We obtained a small difference in stellar parameters derived with non-solar-scaled opacities compared to classical solar-scaled models. The differences in Teff, lo…
The binary system 16 Cygni is key in studies of the planet-star chemical composition connection, as only one of the stars is known to host a planet. This allows us to better assess the possible influence of planet interactions on the chemical composition of stars that are born from the same cloud and thus, should have a similar abundance pattern. In our previous work, we found clear abundance differences for elements with Z$\leq30$ between both components of this system, and a trend of these abundances as a function of the condensation temperature (T$_{c}$), which suggests a spectral chemical …
Constraining the helium-to-metal enrichment ratio $ΔY/ΔZ$ from main sequence binary stars. Theoretical analysis of the accuracy and precision of the age and helium abundance estimates
I combine duplicate spectroscopic stellar parameter estimates in the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) Data Release 6 Low Resolution Spectral Survey A, F, G, and K Type stellar parameter catalog. Combining repeat measurements results in a factor of two improvement in the precision of the spectroscopic stellar parameter estimates. Moreover, this trivializes the process of performing coordinate-based cross-matching with other catalogs. Similarly, I combine duplicate stellar abundance estimates for the Xiang et al. catalog which was produced using LAMOST Data Rele…
Large stellar surveys are revealing the chemodynamical structure of the Galaxy across a vast spatial extent. However, the many millions of low-resolution spectra observed to date are yet to be fully exploited. We employ The Cannon, a data-driven approach to estimating abundances, to obtain detailed abundances from low-resolution (R = 1800) LAMOST spectra, using the GALAH survey as our reference. We deliver five (for dwarfs) or six (for giants) estimated abundances representing five different nucleosynthetic channels, for 3.9 million stars, to a precision of 0.05 - 0.23 dex. Using wide binary p…
We present the determination of stellar parameters and individual elemental abundances for 6 million stars from $\sim$8 million low-resolution ($R\sim1800$) spectra from LAMOST DR5. This is based on a modeling approach that we dub $The$ $Data$--$Driven$ $Payne$ ($DD$--$Payne$), which inherits essential ingredients from both {\it The Payne} \citep{Ting2019} and $The$ $Cannon$ \citep{Ness2015}. It is a data-driven model that incorporates constraints from theoretical spectral models to ensure the derived abundance estimates are physically sensible. Stars in LAMOST DR5 that are in common with eith…
Absolute parameters for AI Phoenicis using WASP photometry
AI Phe是一个双线分离双星，其中一颗K型次巨星每24.6天完全遮蔽其主序星伴星。这种配置使AI Phe成为测试恒星进化模型的理想选择。获得完整的光变曲线的困难意味着现有半径测量的精度可以提高。我们的目标是使用WASP的高精度测光来提高AI Phe中恒星半径测量的精度，并使用这些改进的半径测量以及对恒星质量、温度和组成的估计来限制混合长度、氦丰度和系统年龄。最佳拟合的ebop模型用于获得光变曲线参数，其标准误差使用祈祷珠算法计算。这些与以前发表的光谱轨道结果相结合，以获得质量和半径。一个贝叶斯方法被用来估计年龄的系统的模型网格具有不同的混合长度和氦丰度。发现半径为$R_1=1.835\pm0.014$ R $_{\odot}$，$R_2=2.912\pm0.014$ R $_{\odot}$，质量为$M_1=1.1973\pm0.0037$ M $_{\odot}$，$M_2=1.2473\pm0.0039$ M $_{\odot}$。从最佳拟合的恒星模型中，我们推断出混合长度为1.78，氦丰度为$Y_{AI}=0.26^{+0.02}_{-0.01}$，年龄为$4.39\pm0.32$ Gyr。一次极小值的出现次数表明，AIPhe的周期不是常数。目前，没有足够的数据来确定这种变化的原因。质量和半径的精确度提高了年龄估计，并允许混合长度和氦丰度受到限制。偏心率现在是计算质量时最大…
The rare-earth peak in the $r$-process abundance pattern depends sensitively on both the astrophysical conditions and subtle changes in nuclear structure in the region. This work takes an important step elucidating the nuclear structure and reducing the uncertainties in $r$-process calculations via precise atomic mass measurements at the JYFLTRAP double Penning trap. $^{158}$Nd, $^{160}$Pm, $^{162}$Sm, and $^{164-166}$Gd have been measured for the first time and the precisions for $^{156}$Nd, $^{158}$Pm, $^{162,163}$Eu, $^{163}$Gd, and $^{164}$Tb have been improved considerably. Nuclear struct…
Bedell et al. (2018) give precision differential abundances for 79 mostly G-dwarf stars. We correct these abundances for Galactic chemical evolution in a manner similar to that used by these authors but with parameters derived from linear fits to plots of [El/H] vs. age in lieu of [El/Fe]. We examine the resulting abundances for correlations with the 50% condensation temperature using values from both Lodders (2003) and Wood et al. (2019), and compare with the results of Bedell et al. HD 196390 is distinct in having the most significant correlation of the 79-star sample. We report statistics f…
The precision differential abundance (PDA) technique is applied to the mid-F stars Procyon and $θ$ Scl using spectra from the ESO UVESPOP library. We relate PDA patterns to endogenous processes related to condensation or to exogenous processes connected to Galactic chemical evolution (GCE). We employ one-dimensional LTE models, but emphasize the use of weaker lines ($\leq$ 20 mÅ) than are typically used in such studies. We compare our results with PDAs of solar-type stars. Abundances and PDAs are determined for 28 elements: C, N, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn,…
The helium abundance of stars is a strong driver of evolutionary timescales, however it is difficult to measure in cool stars. We conduct an asteroseismic analysis of NGC 6791, an old, metal rich open cluster that previous studies have indicated also has a high helium abundance. The cluster was observed by Kepler and has unprecedented lightcurves for many of the red giant branch stars in the cluster. Previous asteroseismic studies with Kepler data have constrained the age through grid based modeling of the global asteroseismic parameters ($Δν$ and $ν_{\mathrm{max}}$). However, with the precisi…
High-precision atmospheric characterization of a Y dwarf with JWST NIRSpec G395H spectroscopy: isotopologue, C/O ratio, metallicity, and the abundances of six molecular species
Planets Around Solar Twins/Analogs (PASTA) I.: High precision stellar chemical abundance for 17 planet-hosting stars and the condensation temperature trend
Differences in the elemental abundances of planet hosting stars in binary systems can give important clues and constraints about planet formation and evolution. In this study we performed a high-precision, differential elemental abundance analysis of a wide binary system, HD 80606/80607, based on high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio Keck/HIRES spectra. HD 80606 is known to host a four Jupiter mass giant planet while no planet has yet been detected around HD 80607. We determined stellar parameters as well as abundances for 23 elements for these two stars with extremely high precision. Ou…
