The solar iron abundance: not the last word

Determinations of the solar iron abundance have converged to the meteoritic value with the Fe II studies of Holweger et al. (1990), Biémont et al. (1991) and Hannaford et al. (1992) and the Fe i results of Holweger et al. (1991). However, the latter authors pointed out that Blackwell et al. (1984) obtained a discordant result from similar oscillator strengths. A recent debate on this lingering discrepancy by the Oxford and Kiel contenders themselves has not clarified the issue. We do so here by showing that it stems from systematic differences between equivalent widths and oscillator strengths which masquerade as difference in fitted damping enhancement factors. We first discuss the various error sources in classical abundance determination and then emulate both sides of the debate with abundance fits of our own. Our emulation of the Oxford side shows that the abundance anomaly claimed by Blackwell et al. (1984) for solar Fe i 2.2 eV lines vanishes when equivalent width measurements from other authors are combined with better evaluation of the collisional damping parameter. On the Kiel side, we find that the oscillator strengths of Bard et al. (1991) used by Holweger et al. (1991) produce a suspicious trend when used to fuit solar Fe I lines, whereas comparable application of oscillator strengths from Oxford does not. The trend is mainly set by categories of Fe i lines not measured at Oxford; for lines of overlap the two sets agree and deliver the iron abundance value A Fe = 7.62 ± 0.04 which exceeds the meteorite value. The dissimilar lines may suffer from solar line-formation effects. We conclude that the issue of the solar iron abundance remains open. Definitive oscillator strengths are still needed, as well as verification of classical abundance determination by more realistic representations of the solar photosphere and of photospheric line formation

The iron and oxygen abundances in the metal-poor star HD 140283 and in the Sun

We present the results of a theoretical investigation of the impact of NLTE effects and of granulation inhomogeneities on the iron and oxygen abundances in the metal-poor star HD140283 and in the Sun. Our analysis is based on both the classical one-dimensional (1D) stellar atmosphere models and on a new generation of three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamical models. We consider the Sun as a reference star. The solar iron and oxygen abundances are redefined

The Position of High Frequency Waves with Respect to the Granulation Pattern

High frequency velocity oscillations were observed in the spectral lines Fe I 543.45nm and 543.29nm, using 2D spectroscopy with a Fabry- Perot and speckle reconstruction, at the VTT in Tenerife. We investigate the radial component of waves with frequencies in the range 8 - 22mHz in the internetwork, network and a pore. We find that the occurrence of waves do not show any preference on location and are equally distributed over down-flows and up-flows, regardless of the activity of the observed area in the line of Fe I 543.45nm. The waves observed in the lower formed line of Fe I 543.29nm seem to appear preferentially over down-flows.Comment: Article has 12 pages and 7 images. It is accepted in Solar Physics Journa