Heavy-element abundances in low-gravity globular cluster stars: 47 Tuc star

作者:Worley C C*; Cottrell P L; McDonald I; van Loon J Th
来源:Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2010, 402(3): 2060-2074.
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.16041.x

摘要

The exploration of chemical abundances in globular cluster giant branch stars has revealed element-abundance inhomogeneities between the stars. This study has investigated a sample of giant branch stars in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, which were observed at a resolution of R similar to 110 000 using the Ultraviolet Echelle Spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope. The analysis of these stars showed non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) effects on the abundances derived from the sample of atomic lines under an LTE approximation. The stellar parameters for each star were redetermined using only high-excitation-potential Fe i lines. The resulting chemical abundance analysis showed enhancements in both the light and heavy s-process element abundances with mean values of <<[ls/Fe]>> = 0.53 +/- 0.09 dex and <<[hs/Fe]>> = 0.40 +/- 0.11 dex. However, no trend was found between the ratio of the heavy to light s-process element abundances ([hs/ls] = -0.13 +/- 0.14 dex) and metallicity ([Fe/H] = -0.89 +/- 0.09 dex) due to the small spread in both of these values. This indicates that the heavy-element-abundance enhancements are not due to third dredge-up of internal nucleosynthesis products in these evolved stars. The source of the heavy-element enhancements is therefore primordial or pollution event related in origin.

  • 出版日期2010-3-1