scholarly journals Discovery of s-process enhanced stars in the LAMOST survey

2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (2) ◽  
pp. 2219-2227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brodie J Norfolk ◽  
Andrew R Casey ◽  
Amanda I Karakas ◽  
Matthew T Miles ◽  
Alex J Kemp ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Here we present the discovery of 895 s-process-rich candidates from 454 180 giant stars observed by the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) using a data-driven approach. This sample constitutes the largest number of s-process enhanced stars ever discovered. Our sample includes 187 s-process-rich candidates that are enhanced in both barium and strontium, 49 stars with significant barium enhancement only and 659 stars that show only a strontium enhancement. Most of the stars in our sample are in the range of effective temperature and log g typical of red giant branch (RGB) populations, which is consistent with our observational selection bias towards finding RGB stars. We estimate that only a small fraction (∼0.5 per cent) of binary configurations are favourable for s-process enriched stars. The majority of our s-process-rich candidates (95 per cent) show strong carbon enhancements, whereas only five candidates (<3  per cent) show evidence of sodium enhancement. Our kinematic analysis reveals that 97 per cent of our sample are disc stars, with the other 3 per cent showing velocities consistent with the Galactic halo. The scaleheight of the disc is estimated to be $z_{\rm h}=0.634 \pm {0.063}\, \mathrm{kpc}$, comparable with values in the literature. A comparison with yields from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) models suggests that the main neutron source responsible for the Ba and Sr enhancements is the 13C(α,n)16O reaction. We conclude that s-process-rich candidates may have received their overabundances via mass transfer from a previous AGB companion with an initial mass in the range $1\!-\!3\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$.

Author(s):  
M. Ness

AbstractI review the data-driven approach to spectroscopy, The Cannon, which is a method for deriving fundamental diagnostics of galaxy formation of precise chemical compositions and stellar ages, across many stellar surveys that are mapping the Milky Way. With The Cannon, the abundances and stellar parameters from the multitude of stellar surveys can be placed directly on the same scale, using stars in common between the surveys. Furthermore, the information that resides in the data can be fully extracted, this has resulted in higher precision stellar parameters and abundances being delivered from spectroscopic data and has opened up new avenues in galactic archeology, for example, in the determination of ages for red giant stars across the Galactic disk. Coupled with Gaia distances, proper motions, and derived orbit families, the stellar age and individual abundance information delivered at the precision obtained with the data-driven approach provides very strong constraints on the evolution of and birthplace of stars in the Milky Way. I will review the role of data-driven spectroscopy as we enter the era where we have both the data and the tools to build the ultimate conglomerate of galactic information as well as highlight further applications of data-driven models in the coming decade.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (3) ◽  
pp. 3631-3646 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Ted Mackereth ◽  
Jo Bovy

ABSTRACT The stellar mass in the halo of the Milky Way is notoriously difficult to determine, owing to the paucity of its stars in the solar neighbourhood. With tentative evidence from Gaia that the nearby stellar halo is dominated by a massive accretion event – referred to as Gaia-Enceladus or Sausage – these constraints are now increasingly urgent. We measure the mass in kinematically selected mono-abundance populations (MAPs) of the stellar halo between −3 < [Fe/H] < −1 and 0.0 < [Mg/Fe] < 0.4 using red giant star counts from APOGEE DR14. We find that MAPs are well fit by single power laws on triaxial ellipsoidal surfaces, and we show that that the power-law slope α changes such that high [Mg/Fe] populations have α ∼ 4, whereas low [Mg/Fe] MAPs are more extended with shallow slopes, α ∼ 2. We estimate the total stellar mass to be $M_{*,\mathrm{tot}} = 1.3^{+0.3}_{-0.2}\times 10^{9}\ \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$, of which we estimate ${\sim}0.9^{+0.2}_{-0.1} \times 10^{9}\ \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ to be accreted. We estimate that the mass of accreted stars with e > 0.7 is M*,accreted, e > 0.7 = 3 ± 1 (stat.) ± 1 (syst.) × 108 M⊙, or ${\sim}30{-}50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the accreted halo mass. If the majority of these stars are the progeny of a massive accreted dwarf, this places an upper limit on its stellar mass, and implies a halo mass for the progenitor of ∼1010.2 ± 0.2 M⊙. This constraint not only shows that the Gaia-Enceladus/Sausage progenitor may not be as massive as originally suggested, but that the majority of the Milky Way stellar halo was accreted. These measurements are an important step towards fully reconstructing the assembly history of the Milky Way.


1984 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 195-206
Author(s):  
Jeremy Mould

Recent observations in both the field and the clusters of the Magellanic Clouds suggest a higher mass loss rate during or at the end of the asymptotic giant branch phase than previously supposed. Recent theoretical investigations offer an explanation for the frequency of carbon stars in the Clouds, but a rich parameter space remains to be explored, before detailed agreement can be expected.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-57
Author(s):  
Robert P. Kraft

Only a bit more than 25 years ago, it seemed possible to assume that all Galactic globular clusters were chemically homogeneous. There were indications that star-to-star Fe abundance variations existed in ω Cen, but this massive cluster appeared to be unique. Following Osborn’s (1971) initial discovery, Zinn’s (1973) observation that M92 asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars had weaker G-bands than subgiants with equivalent temperatures provided the first extensive evidence that there might be variations in the abundances of the light elements in an otherwise “normal” cluster. Since then star-to-star variations in the abundances of C, N, O, Na, Mg and Al have been observed in all cases in which sample sizes have exceeded 5-10 stars, e.g., in clusters such as M92, M15, M13, M3, ω Cen, MIO and M5. Among giants in these clusters one finds large surface O abundance differences, and these are intimately related to differences of other light element abundances, not only of C and N, but also of Na, Mg and Al (cf. reviews by Suntzeff 1993, Briley et al 1994, and Kraft 1994). The abundances of Na and O, as well as Al and Mg, are anticorrelated. Prime examples are found among giants in M15 (Sneden et al 1997), M13 (Pilachowski et al 1996; Shetrone 1996a,b; and Kraft et al 1997) and ω Cen (Norris & Da Costa 1995a,b). These observed anticorrelations almost certainly result from proton- capture chains that convert C to N, 0 to N, Ne to Na and Mg to Al in or near the hydrogen fusion layers of evolved cluster stars. But which stars? An appealing idea is that during the giant branch lifetimes of the low-mass stars that we now observe, substantial portions of the stellar envelopes have been cycled through regions near the H-burning shell where proton-capture nucleosynthesis can occur. This so-called “evolutionary” scenario involving deep envelope mixing in first ascent red giant branch (RGB) stars has been studied by Denissenkov & Denissenkova (1990), Langer & Hoffman (1995), Cavallo et al (1996, 1997) and Langer et al (1997). The mixing mechanism that brings proton-capture products to the surface is poorly understood (Denissenkov & Weiss 1996, Denissenkov et al 1997, Langer et al 1997), but deep mixing driven by angular momentum has been suggested (Sweigart & Mengel 1979, Kraft 1994, Langer & Hoffman 1995, Sweigart 1997).


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S268) ◽  
pp. 301-309
Author(s):  
Verne V. Smith

AbstractConnections between observations of the lithium abundance in various types of red giants and stellar evolution are discussed here. The emphasis is on three main topics; 1) the depletion of Li as stars ascend the red giant branch for the first time, 2) the synthesis of 7Li in luminous and massive asymptotic giant branch stars via the mechanism of hot-bottom burning, and 3) the possible multiple sources of excess Li abundances found in a tiny fraction of various types of G and K giants.


Author(s):  
Maria Rah

In this study, we analyzed the evolved red giant ARCTURUS using high-resolution spectroscopy that was taken by HARPS. The other names of this star is α Boo - Arcturus - HR 5340 - HD 124897 - HIP 69673. This evolved (log g = 1.66 dex) star shows low metallicity nature ([Fe/H] = -0.52), which could be employed to study the chemical evolution of the early universe.


Author(s):  
Francesco Nozzoli ◽  
Cinzia Cernetti

Cosmic Rays (CR) are a powerful tool for the investigation of the structure of the magnetic fields in the galactic halo and the property of the Inter-Stellar Medium. Two parameters of the CR propagation models: the galactic halo thickness, H, and the diffusion coefficient, D, are loosely constrained by current CR flux measurements, in particular a large degeneracy exist being only H/D well measured. The 10Be/9Be isotopic flux ratio (thanks to the 2 My lifetime of 10Be) can be used as a radioactive clock providing the measurement of CR residence time in the galaxy. This is an important tool to solve the H/D degeneracy. Past measurements of 10Be/9Be isotopic flux ratio in CR are scarce, limited to low energy and affected by large uncertainties. Here a new technique to measure 10Be/9Be isotopic flux ratio, with a Data-Driven approach, in magnetic spectrometers is presented. As an example by applying the method to Beryllium events published by PAMELA experiment it is now possible to determine the important 10Be/9Be measurement avoiding the prohibitive uncertainties coming from the Monte Carlo simulation. It is shown how the accuracy of PAMELA data permits to infer a value of the halo thickness H within 25% precision.


2018 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. A63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Abate ◽  
Onno R. Pols ◽  
Richard J. Stancliffe

The chemical enrichments detected in carbon- and s-element-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP-s) stars are believed to be the consequence of a past episode of mass transfer from a now extinct asymptotic-giant-branch primary star. This hypothesis is borne out by the evidence that most CEMP-s stars exhibit radial-velocity variations suggesting that they belong to binary systems in which the companion is not directly visible. We used the orbital-period distribution of an unbiased sample of observed CEMP-s stars to investigate the constraints it imposes on our models of binary evolution and on the properties of the metal-poor binary population in the Galactic halo. We generated synthetic populations of metal-poor binary stars using different assumptions about the initial period distribution and about the physics of the mass-transfer process, and we compared the predicted period distributions of our synthetic CEMP-s stars with the observed one. With a set of default assumptions often made in binary population-synthesis studies, the observed period distribution cannot be reproduced. The percentage of observed CEMP-s systems with periods shorter than about 2000 days is underestimated by almost a factor of three, and by about a factor of two between 3000 and 10 000 days. Conversely, about 40% of the simulated systems have periods longer than 104 days, which is approximately the longest measured period among CEMP-s stars. Variations in the assumed stability criterion for Roche-lobe overflow and the efficiency of wind mass transfer do not alter the period distribution enough to overcome this discrepancy. To reconcile the results of the models with the orbital properties of observed CEMP-s stars, one or both of the following conditions are necessary: (i) the specific angular momentum carried away by the material that escapes the binary system is approximately two to five times higher than currently predicted by analytical models and hydrodynamical simulations of wind mass transfer, and (ii) the initial period distribution of very metal-poor binary stars is significantly different from that observed in the solar vicinity and weighted towards periods shorter than about ten thousand days. Our simulations show that some, perhaps all, of the observed CEMP-s stars with apparently constant radial velocity could be undetected binaries with periods longer than 104 days, but the same simulations also predict that twenty to thirty percent of detectable binaries should have periods above this threshold, much more than are currently observed.


2004 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 90-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick R. Durrell ◽  
Megan E. DeCesar ◽  
Robin Ciardullo ◽  
Denise Hurley-Keller ◽  
John J. Feldmeier

We present the preliminary results of a wide-field photometric survey of individual red giant branch (RGB) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the M81 group, performed with the CFH12K mosaic camera of the CFHT. We use deep VI images of 0.65 sq. deg. of sky to map out the two-dimensional distribution of intragroup stars and to search for stars associated with the many HI tidal tails in the group. We place an upper limit on the presence of metal-poor RGB stars in a field located 50-80 kpc from M81, and derive an ‘intragroup’ fraction of < 2%. In a field sampling the M81-NGC3077 HI tidal tail, we find blue stars associated with some of the tidal features, including 2 clumps which we tentatively describe as tidal dwarf candidates. These objects are ~ 1 kpc in size, and, based on their color-magnitude diagrams, have formed stars as recently as ~ 30 – 70 Myr ago, long after the group's most recent interactions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S268) ◽  
pp. 361-362
Author(s):  
Laimons Začs ◽  
Arturs Barzdis

AbstractThe lithium abundance was calculated for five metal-poor red giant stars from Li i doublet at 6707 Å by fitting the observed high-resolution spectra with synthetic spectra. The lithium abundance was found to be low in all stars, logϵ(Li) ≤ 1.8, confirming lithium depletion on the red giant and asymptotic giant branch.


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