Abundances in red giant stars of NGC 2808 and correlations between chemical anomalies and global parameters in globular clusters

Abstract

We present the abundance analysis of stars from the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) to below the RGB-bump in the globular cluster NGC 2808, based on high resolution echelle spectra. We derived abundances of Al, alpha-process elements (Si I, Ca I, Ti I and Ti II) and Fe-group elements (Sc II, V I, Cr I, Cr II, Mn I, Co I, Ni I). Apart from Mg being somewhat reduced, likely because it has been depleted at the expense of Al in the MgAl cycle, the other alpha-element ratios show the overabundance typical of halo stars of similar metallicity. Mn is underabundant, whereas Fe-group elements have typical abundance ratios near the solar value. We detect star-to-star differences in Al abundances from the RGB tip down to the faintest star below the RGB-bump, correlated with Na abundances at all luminosities. The slope of the Na-Al correlation is similar to the one found in M 13 by Sneden et al. (2004), but it is different from those in other globular clusters of similar metallicity. We find that the amount of chemical inhomogeneities along the Na-O and Mg-Al anticorrelations in globular cluster red giants is correlated with the present day cluster mass and ellipticity. Moreover, we find for the first time a correlation between the spread in proton-capture elements and orbital parameters of clusters. The chemical anomalies are more extended in clusters having large-sized orbits and longer periods, and in clusters with larger inclination angles of the orbit with respect to the Galactic plane.