The main atmospheric parameters and abundances of the iron group elements
(vanadium, chromium, iron, cobalt and nickel) are determined for 62 red giant
"clump" stars revealed in the Galactic field by the Hipparcos orbiting
observatory. The stars form a homogeneous sample with the mean value of
temperature T=4750 +- 160K, of surface gravity log g = 2.41 +- 0.26 and the
mean value of metallicity [Fe/H] = -0.04 +- 0.15 dex. A Gaussian fit to the
[Fe/H] distribution produces the mean [Fe/H] = -0.01 dex and dispersion of
[Fe/H] = 0.08 dex. The near-solar metallicity and small dispersion of [Fe/H] of
clump stars of the Galaxy obtained in this work confirm the theoretical model
of the Hipparcos clump by Girardi & Salaris (2001). This suggests that nearby
clump stars are (in the mean) relatively young objects, reflecting mainly the
near-solar metallicities developed in the local disk during the last few Gyrs
of its history. We find iron group element to iron abundance ratios in clump
giants to be close to solar.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
