Search Results
The metal-poor end of the Spite plateau: II. Chemical and dynamical investigation
2021, Matas Pinto, A. M., Spite, M., Caffau, E., Bonifacio, P., Sbordone, L., Sivarani, T., Steffen, M., Spite, F., François, P., Di Matteo, P.
Context. The study of old, metal-poor stars deepens our knowledge on the early stages of the universe. In particular, the study of these stars gives us a valuable insight into the masses of the first massive stars and their emission of ionising photons. Aims. We present a detailed chemical analysis and determination of the kinematic and orbital properties of a sample of 11 dwarf stars. These are metal-poor stars, and a few of them present a low lithium content. We inspected whether the other elements also present anomalies. Methods. We analysed the high-resolution UVES spectra of a few metal-poor stars using the Turbospectrum code to synthesise spectral lines profiles. This allowed us to derive a detailed chemical analysis of Fe, C, Li, Na, Mg, Al, Si, CaI, CaII, ScII, TiII, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Sr, and Ba. Results. We find excellent coherence with the reference metal-poor First Stars sample. The lithium-poor stars do not present any anomaly of the abundance of the elements other than lithium. Among the Li-poor stars, we show that CS 22882-027 is very probably a blue-straggler. The star CS 30302-145, which has a Li abundance compatible with the plateau, has a very low Si abundance and a high Mn abundance. In many aspects, it is similar to the α-poor star HE 1424-0241, but it is less extreme. It could have been formed in a satellite galaxy and later been accreted by our Galaxy. This hypothesis is also supported by its kinematics.
Stellar Population Astrophysics (SPA) with the TNG: α-elements, lithium, sodium and aluminum in 16 open clusters
2022, Zhang, R., Lucatello, S., Bragaglia, A., Alonso-Santiago, J., Andreuzzi, G., Casali, G., Carrera, R., Carretta, E., D’Orazi, V., Frasca, A., Fu, X., Magrini, L., Minchev, I., Origlia, L., Spina, L., Vallenari, A.
Context. Exploring the Galactic chemical evolution and enrichment scenarios with open clusters (OCs) allows us to understand the history of the Milky Way disk. High-resolution spectra of OCs are a crucial tool, as they provide precise chemical information, to combine with precise distances and ages. Aims. The aim of the Stellar Population Astrophysics (SPA) project is to derive homogeneous and accurate comprehensive chemical characterization of a number of poorly studied OCs. Methods. Using the HARPS-N echelle spectrograph at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), we obtained high-resolution spectra of giant stars in 18 OCs, 16 of which are chemically characterized for the first time, and two of which are well studied for comparison. The OCs in this sample have ages from a few tens of Myr to 4 Gyr, with a prevalence of young clusters. We already presented the radial velocities and atmospheric parameters for them in a previous SPA paper. Here, we present results for the α-elements O, Mg, Si, Ca and Ti, and the light elements Na and Al, all determined by the equivalent width method. We also measured Li abundance through the synthesis method. Results. We discuss the behaviors of lithium, sodium and aluminum in the context of stellar evolution. For Na and Al, we compare our findings with models to investigate their behaviors as a function of mass, suggesting that Na mixing to the surface might start in masses as low as 2 M·. We study the radial, vertical, and age trends for the measured abundance ratios in a sample that combines our results and recent literature for OCs, finding significant (positive) gradients only for [Mg/Fe] and [Ca/Fe] in all cases. Finally, we compare O and Mg in the combined sample with chemo-dynamical models, finding a good agreement for intermediate-Age and old clusters. There is a sharp increase in the abundance ratios measured among very young clusters (age < 300 Myr), accompanied by a poorer fit with the models for O and Mg, likely related to the inadequacy of traditional model atmospheres and methods in the derivation of atmospheric parameters and abundance ratios for stars of such young ages.