arXiv subjects

Carlos Allende-Prieto

Publications and source records attributed to Carlos Allende-Prieto.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Early phases of the Galaxy from the chemical imprint on the iron-poor stars J0815+4729 and J0023+0307

We have been exploring large spectroscopic databases such as SDSS to search for unique stars with extremely low iron content with the goal of extracting detailed information from the early phases of the Galaxy. We recently identified two extremely iron-poor dwarf stars J0815+4729 (Aguado et al. 2018a) and J0023+0307 (Aguado et al. 2018b) from SDSS/BOSS database and confirmed from high-quality spectra taken with ISIS and OSIRIS spectrographs at the 4.2m WHT and 10.4m GTC telescopes, respectively, located in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain). We have also acquired high-resolution spectroscopy with UVES at 8.2m VLT telescope (Paranal, ESO, Chile) and HIRES at the 10m KeckI telescope (Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA), uncovering the unique abundance pattern of these stars, that reveal e.g. the extreme CNO abundances in J0815+4729 with ratios [X/Fe]~$> 4$ (González Hernández et al. 2020). In addition, we are able to detect Li at the level of the lithium plateau in J0023+0307 (Aguado et al. 2019a), whereas we are only able to give a Li upper-limit 0.7 dex below the lithium plateau in J0815+4729, thus adding more complexity to the cosmological lithium problem. New upcoming surveys such as WEAVE, 4MOST and DESI will likely allow us to discover new interesting extremely iron-poor stars, that will certainly contribute to our understanding of the Early Galaxy, and the properties of the first stars and the first supernovae.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

The chemical characterisation of halo substructure in the Milky Way based on APOGEE

Galactic haloes in a $Λ$-CDM universe are predicted to host today a swarm of debris resulting from cannibalised dwarf galaxies. The chemo-dynamical information recorded in their stellar populations helps elucidate their nature, constraining the assembly history of the Galaxy. Using data from APOGEE and \textit{Gaia}, we examine the chemical properties of various halo substructures, considering elements that sample various nucleosynthetic pathways. The systems studied are Heracles, \textit{Gaia}-Enceladus/Sausage (GES), the Helmi stream, Sequoia, Thamnos, Aleph, LMS-1, Arjuna, I'itoi, Nyx, Icarus, and Pontus. Abundance patterns of all substructures are cross-compared in a statistically robust fashion. Our main findings include: {\it i)} the chemical properties of most substructures studied match qualitatively those of dwarf Milky Way satellites, such as the Sagittarius dSph. Exceptions are Nyx and Aleph, which are chemically similar to disc stars, implying that these substructures were likely formed \textit{in situ}; {\it ii)} Heracles differs chemically from {\it in situ} populations such as Aurora and its inner halo counterparts in a statistically significant way. The differences suggest that the star formation rate was lower in Heracles than in the early Milky Way; {\it iii)} the chemistry of Arjuna, LMS-1, and I'itoi is indistinguishable from that of GES, suggesting a possible common origin; {\it iv)} all three Sequoia samples studied are qualitatively similar. However, only two of those samples present chemistry that is consistent with GES in a statistically significant fashion; {\it v)} the abundance patterns of the Helmi stream and Thamnos are different from all other halo substructures.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

J-PLUS: Searching for very metal-poor star candidates using the SPEEM pipeline

We explore the stellar content of the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) Data Release 2 and show its potential to identify low-metallicity stars using the Stellar Parameters Estimation based on Ensemble Methods (SPEEM) pipeline. SPEEM is a tool to provide determinations of atmospheric parameters for stars and separate stellar sources from quasars, using the unique J-PLUS photometric system. The adoption of adequate selection criteria allows the identification of metal-poor star candidates suitable for spectroscopic follow-up. SPEEM consists of a series of machine learning models which uses a training sample observed by both J-PLUS and the SEGUE spectroscopic survey. The training sample has temperatures Teff between 4\,800 K and 9\,000 K; $\log g$ between 1.0 and 4.5, and $-3.1<[Fe/H]<+0.5$. The performance of the pipeline has been tested with a sample of stars observed by the LAMOST survey within the same parameter range. The average differences between the parameters of a sample of stars observed with SEGUE and J-PLUS, which were obtained with the SEGUE Stellar Parameter Pipeline and SPEEM, respectively, are $ΔTeff\sim 41$ K, $Δ\log g\sim 0.11$ dex, and $Δ[Fe/H]\sim 0.09$ dex. A sample of 177 stars have been identified as new candidates with $[Fe/H]<-2.5$ and 11 of them have been observed with the ISIS spectrograph at the William Herschel Telescope. The spectroscopic analysis confirms that $64\%$ of stars have $[Fe/H]<-2.5$, including one new star with $[Fe/H]<-3.0$. SPEEM in combination with the J-PLUS filter system has shown the potential to estimate the stellar atmospheric parameters (Teff, $\log g$, and [Fe/H]). The spectroscopic validation of the candidates shows that SPEEM yields a success rate of $64\%$ on the identification of very metal-poor star candidates with $[Fe/H]<-2.5$.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2020

NLTE for APOGEE: Simultaneous Multi-Element NLTE Radiative Transfer

The new version of TLUSTY allows for the calculation of restricted NLTE in cool stars using pre-calculated opacity tables. We demonstrate that TLUSTY gives consistent results with MULTI, a well-tested code for NLTE in cool stars. We use TLUSTY to perform LTE and a series of NLTE calculations of Na, Mg, K and Ca using all combinations of 1, 2, 3 and the 4 elements mentioned above simultaneously in NLTE. In this work we take into account how departures from LTE in one element can affect others through changes in the opacities due to NLTE. We find that atomic Mg, which provides strong UV opacity, and shows departures from LTE in the low-energy states, can impact the NLTE populations of Ca, leading to abundance corrections as large as 0.07 dex. The differences in the derived abundances between the single-element and the multi-element cases can exceed those between the single-element NLTE and an LTE analysis, warning that this is not always a second-order effect. By means of detailed tests for three stars with reliable atmospheric parameters (Arcturus, Procyon and the Sun) we conclude that our NLTE calculations provide abundance corrections in the optical up to 0.1, 0.2 and 0.7 dex for Ca, Na and K, but LTE is a good approximation for Mg. In the H-band, NLTE corrections are much smaller, under 0.1 dex. The derived NLTE abundances in the optical and in the IR are consistent. For all four elements, in all three stars, NLTE line profiles fit better the observations than the LTE counterparts. For elements where over-ionisation is an important NLTE mechanism are likely affected by departures from LTE in Mg . Special care must be taken with the collisions adopted for high-lying levels when calculating NLTE profiles of lines in the H-band. The derived NLTE corrections in the optical and in the H-band differ, but the derived NLTE abundances are consistent between the two spectral regions.

astro-ph.SR↗