38 research outputs found
Behavior of [S/Fe] in Very Metal-Poor Stars from the S I 1.046 micron Lines Revisited
With an aim of establishing how the [S/Fe] ratios behave at the very low
metallicity regime down to [Fe/H] ~ -3, we conducted a non-LTE analysis of
near-IR S ~ {\sc i} triplet lines (multiplet 3) at 10455-10459 A for a dozen of
very metal-poor stars (-3.2 <[Fe/H] < -1.9) based on the new observational data
obtained with IRCS+AO188 of the Subaru Telescope. It turned out that the
resulting [S/Fe] values are only moderately supersolar at [S/Fe] ~ +0.2-0.5
irrespective of the metallicity. While this "flat" tendency is consistent with
the trend recently corroborated by Spite et al. (2011, A&A, 528, A9) based on
the S I 9212/9228/9237 lines (multiplet 1), it disaffirms the possibility of
conspicuously large [S/Fe] (up to ~+0.8) at [Fe/H] ~ -3 that we once suggested
in our first report on the S abundances of disk/halo stars using S I
10455-10459 lines (Takeda & Takada-Hidai 2011, PASJ, 63, S537). Given these new
observational facts, we withdraw our previous argument, since we consider that
[S/Fe]'s of some most metal-poor objects were overestimated in that paper; the
likely cause for this failure is also discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ, Vol. 64, No. 3
(2012
Chromospheres in Metal-Poor Stars Evidenced from the He I 10830A Line
Based on the near-IR spectra of 33 late-type stars in the wide metallicity
range (mainly dwarfs and partly giants) obtained with IRCS+AO188 of the Subaru
Telescope, we confirmed that He I 10830A line is seen in absorption in almost
all moderately to extremely metal-poor stars of thick disk and halo population
(from [Fe/H]~ -0.5 down to [Fe/H]~ -3.7), the strength of which is almost
constant irrespective of the metallicity. This is an evidence that
chromospheric activity at a basal level persists even for such old stars,
despite that their rotations are considered to be slowed down and incapable of
sustaining a dynamo, suggesting that some kind of chromospheric heating
mechanism independent of rotation/magnetism (e.g., acoustic heating) may take
place.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Pub. Astron. Soc. Japan, Vol. 63 (2011), in pres
Exploring the [S/Fe] Behavior of Metal-Poor Stars with the S I 1.046 micron Lines
In an attempt of clarifying the [S/Fe] behavior with the run of [Fe/H] in the
metal-poor regime which has been a matter of debate, an extensive non-LTE
analysis of near-IR S I triplet lines (multiplet 3) at 1.046 micron was carried
out for selected 33 halo/disk stars in a wide metallicity range of [Fe/H] ~-3.7
to ~+0.3, based on the spectral data collected with IRCS+AO188 of the Subaru
Telescope. We found an evidence of considerably large [S/Fe] ratio amounting to
~+0.7-0.8 dex at very low metallicity of [Fe/H] ~-3, which makes marked
contrast with other alpha-elements (Mg, Si, Ca, Ti) flatly showing moderately
supersolar [alpha/Fe] of ~0.3 dex. Meanwhile, a locally-flat tendency of [S/Fe]
at ~+0.3 is seen at -2.5 <[Fe/H]< -1.5. These results may suggest that the
nature of [S/Fe] in metal-poor halo stars is not so simple as has been argued
(i.e., neither being globally flat independent of [Fe/H] nor monotonically
increasing with a decrease in [Fe/H]), but rather complicated with a local
plateau around [Fe/H] ~-2 followed by a discontinuous jump between the narrow
interval of -3 <[Fe/H]< -2.5.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables and 2 electronic data tables (appended
as auxiliary files); accepted for publication in PASJ (to appear in vol. 63,
No. 2, 2011
The Lyman-alpha Forest at z~4: Keck HIRES Observations of Q 0000-26
This paper describes a study of the Lyman-alpha forest absorption clouds
along the quasar sightline Q0000-26 (zem=4.1). The spectrum was obtained with
the High Resolution Spectrometer on the 10m Keck telescope. We derive accurate
H I column density and Doppler width distributions for the clouds from Voigt
profile fitting. We also analyze simulated Lyman-alpha forest spectra of
matching characteristics in order to gauge the effects of line
blending/blanketing and noise in the data. The results are compared with
similar studies at lower redshifts in order to study any possible evolution in
the clouds' properties. We also estimate the mean intensity of the UV
background at z=4 from an analysis of the proximity effect.Comment: plain TeX containing 23 PS pages, 3 PS tables, and 9 PS figures, ApJ,
Dec 1, 1996 issue replacing an earlier version which contains an corrupted
table
Non-LTE Line-Formation and Abundances of Sulfur and Zinc in F, G, and K Stars
Extensive statistical-equilibrium calculations on neutral sulfur and zinc
were carried out, in order to investigate how the non-LTE effect plays a role
in the determination of S and Zn abundances in F, G, and K stars. Having
checked on the spectra of representative F-type stars (Polaris, Procyon, and
alpha Per) and the Sun that our non-LTE corrections yield a reasonable
consistency between the abundances derived from different lines, we tried an
extensive non-LTE reanalysis of published equivalent-width data of S I and Zn I
lines for metal-poor halo/disk stars. According to our calculations, S I
9212/9228/9237 lines suffer significant negative non-LTE corrections amounting
to <~ 0.2--0.3 dex, while LTE is practically valid for S I 8683/8694 lines.
Embarrassingly, as far as the very metal-poor regime is concerned, a marked
discordance is observed between the [S/Fe] values from these two abundance
indicators, in the sense that the former attains a nearly flat plateau (or even
a slight downward bending) while the latter shows an ever-increasing trend with
a further lowering of metallicity. The reason for this discrepancy is yet to be
clarified. Regarding Zn, we almost confirmed the characteristic tendencies of
[Zn/Fe] reported from recent LTE studies (i.e., an evident/slight increase of
[Zn/Fe] with a decrease of [Fe/H] for very metal-poor/disk stars), since the
non-LTE corrections for the Zn I 4722/4810 and 6362 lines (tending to be
positive and gradually increasing towards lower [Fe/H]) are quantitatively of
less significance (<~ 0.1 dex).Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures, PASJ, Vol. 57, No. 5 (2005) in pres
Spectroscopic and asteroseismic analysis of the remarkable main-sequence A star KIC 11145123
A spectroscopic analysis was carried out to clarify the properties of KIC
11145123 -- the first main-sequence star with a determination of
core-to-surface rotation -- based on spectra observed with the High Dispersion
Spectrograph (HDS) of the Subaru telescope. The atmospheric parameters ( K, , km s and dex), the radial and rotation velocities, and elemental abundances were
obtained by analysing line strengths and fitting line profiles, which were
calculated with a 1D LTE model atmosphere. The main properties of KIC 11145123
are: (1) A low dex and a high radial velocity of
km s. These are remarkable among late-A stars. Our best
asteroseismic models with this low [Fe/H] have slightly high helium abundance
and low masses of 1.4 M. All of these results strongly suggest that KIC
11145123 is a Population II blue straggler; (2) The projected rotation velocity
confirms the asteroseismically predicted slow rotation of the star; (3)
Comparisons of abundance patterns between KIC 11145123 and Am, Ap, and blue
stragglers show that KIC 11145123 is neither an Am star nor an Ap star, but has
abundances consistent with a blue straggler. We conclude that the remarkably
long 100-d rotation period of this star is a consequence of it being a blue
straggler, but both pathways for the formation of blue stragglers -- merger and
mass loss in a binary system -- pose difficulties for our understanding of the
exceedingly slow rotation. In particular, we show that there is no evidence of
any secondary companion star, and we put stringent limits on the possible mass
of any such purported companion through the phase modulation (PM) technique.Comment: 19 pages, of which the final 7 are appendixed data tables. Ten
figures, some of which do require colour. Accepted for publication in MNRA
On the Abundance of Potassium in Metal-Poor Stars
Based on extensive statistical-equilibrium calculations, we performed a
non-LTE analysis of the K {\sc i} 7699 equivalent-width data of metal-deficient
stars for the purpose of clarifying the behavior of the photospheric potassium
abundance in disk/halo stars. While the resulting non-LTE abundance corrections
turned out to be considerably large, amounting to 0.2--0.7 dex, their effect on
the [K/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] relation is not very important, since these corrections
do not show any significant metallicity dependence. Hence, we again confirmed
the results of previous LTE studies, that [K/Fe] shows a gradual systematic
increase toward a lowered metallicity up to [K/Fe] 0.3--0.5 at [Fe/H]
-1 to -2, such as in the case of elements.Comment: 16 pages (including 2 tables and 4 figures), to appear in PASJ,
Vol.54, No.2 (using the style file pasj00.cls
On the first δ Sct–roAp hybrid pulsator and the stability of p and g modes in chemically peculiar A/F stars
Abstract Strong magnetic fields in chemically peculiar A-type (Ap) stars typically suppress low-overtone pressure modes (p modes) but allow high-overtone p modes to be driven. KIC 11296437 is the first star to show both. We obtained and analysed a Subaru spectrum, from which we show that KIC 11296437 has abundances similar to other magnetic Ap stars, and we estimate a mean magnetic field modulus of 2.8 ± 0.5 kG. The same spectrum rules out a double-lined spectroscopic binary, and we use other techniques to rule out binarity over a wide parameter space, so the two pulsation types originate in one δ Sct–roAp hybrid pulsator. We construct stellar models depleted in helium and demonstrate that helium settling is second to magnetic damping in suppressing low-overtone p modes in Ap stars. We compute the magnetic damping effect for selected p and g modes, and find that modes with frequencies similar to the fundamental mode are driven for polar field strengths ≲ 4 kG, while other low-overtone p modes are driven for polar field strengths up to ∼1.5 kG. We find that the high-order g modes commonly observed in γ Dor stars are heavily damped by polar fields stronger than 1–4 kG, with the damping being stronger for higher radial orders. We therefore explain the observation that no magnetic Ap stars have been observed as γ Dor stars. We use our helium-depleted models to calculate the δ Sct instability strip for metallic-lined A (Am) stars, and find that driving from a Rosseland mean opacity bump at ∼5 × 104 K caused by the discontinuous H-ionization edge in bound-free opacity explains the observation of δ Sct pulsations in Am stars