84 research outputs found
Parent Stars of Extrasolar Planets. XI. Trends with Condensation Temperature Revisited
We report the results of abundance analyses of new samples of stars with
planets and stars without detected planets. We employ these data to compare
abundance-condensation temperature trends in both samples. We find that stars
with planets have more negative trends. In addition, the more metal-rich stars
with planets display the most negative trends. These results confirm and extend
the findings of Ramirez et al. (2009) and Melendez et al. (2009), who
restricted their studies to solar analogs. We also show that the differences
between the solar photospheric and CI meteoritic abundances correlate with
condensation temperature.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures; to be published in MNRA
Carbon Stars in the Hamburg/ESO Survey: Abundances
We have carried out a detailed abundance analysis for a sample of 16 carbon
stars found among candidate extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars from the
Hamburg/ESO Survey. We find that the Fe-metallicities for the cooler C-stars
(Teff ~ 5100K) have been underestimated by a factor of ~10 by the standard HES
survey tools. The results presented here provided crucial supporting data used
by Cohen et al (2006) to derive the frequency of C-stars among EMP stars.
C-enhancement in these EMP C-stars appears to be independent of
Fe-metallicity and approximately constant at ~1/5 the solar C/H. The mostly low
C12/C13 ratios (~4) and the high N abundances in many of these stars suggest
that material which has been through proton burning via the CN cycle comprises
most of the stellar envelope. C-enhancement is associated with strong
enrichment of heavy nuclei beyond the Fe-peak for 12 of the 16 stars. The
remaining C-stars from the HES, which tend to be the most Fe-metal poor, show
no evidence for enhancement of the heavy elements. Very high enhancements of
lead are detected in some of the C-stars with highly enhanced Ba. (We show
that) the s-process is responsible for the enhancement of the heavy elements
for the majority of the C-stars in our sample.
We suggest that both the s-process rich and Ba-normal C-stars result from
phenomena associated with mass transfer in binary systems. This leads directly
to the progression from C-stars to CH stars and then to Ba stars as the
Fe-metallicity increases. (abridged and slightly edited to shorten)Comment: AJ, in press, submitted 13 Dec, 2005, accepted 21 March 200
Chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge as traced by microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars: IV. Two bulge populations
Based on high-resolution (R ≈ 42 000 to 48 000) and high signal-to-noise (S/N ≈ 50 to 150) spectra obtained with UVES/VLT, we present detailed elemental abundances (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, Zn, Y, and Ba) and stellar ages for 12 new mic
The effective temperature scale of FGK stars. II. Teff : color : [Fe/H] calibrations
We present up-to-date metallicity-dependent temperature vs. color
calibrations for main sequence and giant stars based on temperatures derived
with the infrared flux method (IRFM). Seventeen colors in the following
photometric systems: UBV, uvby, Vilnius, Geneva, RI(Cousins), DDO,
Hipparcos-Tycho, and 2MASS, have been calibrated. The spectral types covered
range from F0 to K5 (7000 K<Teff<4000 K) with some relations extending below
4000 K or up to 8000 K. Most of the calibrations are valid in the metallicity
range -3.5<[Fe/H]<0.4, although some of them extend to as low as [Fe/H]=-4.0.
All fits to the data have been performed with more than 100 stars; standard
deviations range from 30 K to 120 K. Fits were carefully performed and
corrected to eliminate the small systematic errors introduced by the
calibration formulae. Tables of colors as a function of Teff and [Fe/H] are
provided. (Abridged)Comment: To appear in ApJ. For online tables and figures, see
http://webspace.utexas.edu/ir68/tef
Permitted Oxygen Abundances and the Temperature Scale of Metal-Poor Turn-Off Stars
We use high quality VLT/UVES published data of the permitted OI triplet and
FeII lines to determine oxygen and iron abundances in unevolved (dwarfs,
turn-off, subgiants) metal-poor halo stars. The calculations have been
performed both in LTE and NLTE, employing effective temperatures obtained with
the new infrared flux method (IRFM) temperature scale by Ramirez & Melendez,
and surface gravities from Hipparcos parallaxes and theoretical isochrones. A
new list of accurate transition probabilities for FeII lines, tied to the
absolute scale defined by laboratory measurements, has been used. We find a
plateau in the oxygen-to-iron ratio over more than two orders of magnitude in
iron abundance (-3.2 < [Fe/H] < -0.7), with a mean [O/Fe] = 0.5 dex (sigma =
0.1 dex), independent of metallicity, temperature and surface gravity.
According to the new IRFM Teff scale, the temperatures of turn-off halo stars
strongly depend on metallicity, a result that is in excellent qualitative and
quantitative agreement with stellar evolution calculations, which predict that
the Teff of the turn-off at [Fe/H] = -3 is about 600-700 K higher than that at
[Fe/H] = -1.Comment: In press, Ap
The stellar content of the Hamburg/ESO survey. V. The metallicity distribution function of the Galactic halo
We determine the metallicity distribution function (MDF) of the Galactic halo
by means of a sample of 1638 metal-poor stars selected from the Hamburg/ESO
objective-prism survey (HES). The sample was corrected for minor biases
introduced by the strategy for spectroscopic follow-up observations of the
metal-poor candidates, namely "best and brightest stars first". [...] We
determined the selection function of the HES, which must be taken into account
for a proper comparison between the HES MDF with MDFs of other stellar
populations or those predicted by models of Galactic chemical evolution. The
latter show a reasonable agreement with the overall shape of the HES MDF for
[Fe/H] > -3.6, but only a model of Salvadori et al. (2007) with a critical
metallicity for low-mass star formation of Z_cr = 10^{-3.4} * Z_Sun reproduces
the sharp drop at [Fe/H] ~-3.6 present in the HES MDF. [...] A comparison of
the MDF of Galactic globular clusters and of dSph satellites to the Galaxy
shows qualitative agreement with the halo MDF, derived from the HES, once the
selection function of the latter is included. However, statistical tests show
that the differences between these are still highly significant. [ABSTRACT
ABRIDGED]Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
The effective temperature scale of FGK stars. I. Determination of temperatures and angular diameters with the infrared flux method
The infrared flux method (IRFM) has been applied to a sample of 135 dwarf and
36 giant stars covering the following regions of the atmospheric parameters
space: 1) the metal-rich ([Fe/H]>0) end (consisting mostly of planet-hosting
stars), 2) the cool (Teff<5000 K) metal-poor (-1<[Fe/H]<-3) dwarf region, and
3) the very metal-poor ([Fe/H]<-2.5) end. These stars were especially selected
to cover gaps in previous works on Teff vs. color relations, particularly the
IRFM Teff scale of A. Alonso and collaborators. Our IRFM implementation was
largely based on the Alonso et al. study (absolute infrared flux calibration,
bolometric flux calibration, etc.) with the aim of extending the ranges of
applicability of their Teff vs. color calibrations. In addition, in order to
improve the internal accuracy of the IRFM Teff scale, we recomputed the
temperatures of almost all stars from the Alonso et al. work using updated
input data. The updated temperatures do not significantly differ from the
original ones, with few exceptions, leaving the Teff scale of Alonso et al.
mostly unchanged. Including the stars with updated temperatures, a large sample
of 580 dwarf and 470 giant stars (in the field and in clusters), which cover
the ranges: 3600 K<Teff<8000 K, -4.0<[Fe/H]<+0.5, have Teff homogeneously
determined with the IRFM. (Abridged)Comment: To appear in ApJ. For online tables and figures, see
http://webspace.utexas.edu/ir68/tef
Properties of stellar generations in Globular Clusters and relations with global parameters
ABRIDGED) We revise the formation of Galactic GCs by adding the detailed
chemical composition of their different stellar generations (from 1200 giants
in 19 GCs) to their global parameters. We propose to identify as GCs those
showing the Na-O anticorrelation, and we classify the GCs according to
kinematics and location in the Galaxy in disk/bulge, inner, and outer halo. We
find that the LF of GCs is fairly independent of their population, suggesting
that it is imprinted by the formation mechanism, and only marginally affected
by the ensuing evolution. We show that a large fraction of the primordial
population should have been lost by the proto-GCs. The extremely low Al
abundances found for the primordial population of massive GCs indicate a very
fast enrichment process before the formation of the primordial population. We
suggest a scenario for the formation of GCs including at least 3 main phases:
i) the formation of a precursor population (likely due to the interaction of
cosmological structures similar to those leading to dwarf spheroidals, but
residing at smaller Rgc, with the early Galaxy or with other structures), ii)
which triggers a large episode of star formation (the primordial population),
and iii) the formation of the current GC, mainly within a cooling flow formed
by the slow winds of a fraction of the primordial population. The precursor
population is very effective in raising the metal content in massive and/or
metal poor (mainly halo) clusters, while its role is minor in small and/or
metal rich (mainly disk) ones. Finally, we use PCA and multivariate relations
to study the phase of metal-enrichment from 1st to 2nd generation. Most of the
chemical signatures of GCs may be ascribed to a few parameters, the most
important being [Fe/H], mass, and age of the cluster, with the location within
the Galaxy also playing some role.Comment: 24 pages (+2 pages of bibliography and 5 of Appendix), 19 figures,
accepted for publication on Astronomy and Astrophysic
Oxygen abundance in local disk and bulge: chemical evolution with a strictly universal IMF
The empirical differential oxygen abundance distribution (EDOD) is deduced
from subsamples related to two different samples involving solar neighbourhood
(SN) thick disk, thin disk, halo, and bulge stars. The EDOD of the SN thick +
thin disk is determined by weighting the mass, for assumed SN thick to thin
disk mass ratio within the range, 0.1-0.9. Inhomogeneous models of chemical
evolution for the SN thick disk, the SN thin disk, the SN thick + thin disk,
the SN halo, and the bulge, are computed assuming the instantaneous recycling
approximation. The EDOD data are fitted, to an acceptable extent, by their TDOD
counterparts provided (i) still undetected, low-oxygen abundance thin disk
stars exist, and (ii) a single oxygen overabundant star is removed from a thin
disk subsample. In any case, the (assumed power-law) stellar initial mass
function (IMF) is universal but gas can be inhibited from, or enhanced in,
forming stars at different rates with respect to a selected reference case.
Models involving a strictly universal IMF (i.e. gas neither inhibited from, nor
enhanced in, forming stars with respect to a selected reference case) can also
reproduce the data. The existence of a strictly universal IMF makes similar
chemical enrichment within active (i.e. undergoing star formation) regions
placed in different environments, but increasing probability of a region being
active passing from SN halo to SN thick + thin disk, SN thin disk, SN thick
disk, and bulge. On the basis of the results, it is realized that the chemical
evolution of the SN thick + thin disk as a whole cannot be excluded.Comment: 26 pages, 10 tables, and 5 figures; tables out of page are splitted
in two parts in Appendix B; sects.4 and 5 rewritten for better understanding
of the results; further references added. Accepted for publication in
Astrophysics & Space Scienc
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