arXiv subjects

H. -G. Ludwig

Publications and source records attributed to H. -G. Ludwig.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Main-Sequence and sub-giant stars in the Globular Cluster NGC6397: The complex evolution of the lithium abundance

Thanks to the high multiplex and efficiency of Giraffe at the VLT we have been able for the first time to observe the Li I doublet in the Main Sequence (MS) stars of a Globular Cluster. At the same time we observed Li in a sample of Sub-Giant (SG) stars of the same B-V colour. Our final sample is composed of 84 SG stars and 79 MS stars. In spite of the fact that SG and MS span the same temperature range we find that the equivalent widths of the Li I doublet in SG stars are systematically larger than those in MS stars, suggesting a higher Li content among SG stars. This is confirmed by our quantitative analysis. We derived the effective temperatures, from H$α$ fitting, and NLTE Li abundances of the stars in our the sample, using 3D and 1D models. We find that SG stars have a mean Li abundance higher by 0.1dex than MS stars, using both 1D and 3D models. We also detect a positive slope of Li abundance with effective temperature. These results provide an unambiguous evidence that the Li abundance changes with evolutionary status. The physical mechanisms responsible for this behaviour are not yet clear, and none of the existing models seems to describe accurately these observations. Based on these conclusions, we believe that the cosmological lithium problem still remains an open question.

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arXiv2009

3D molecular line formation in dwarf carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars

We present a detailed analysis of the carbon and nitrogen abundances of two dwarf carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars: SDSS J1349-0229 and SDSS J0912+0216. We also report the oxygen abundance of SDSS J1349-0229. These stars are metal-poor, with [Fe/H] < -2.5, and were selected from our ongoing survey of extremely metal-poor dwarf candidates from the Sloan Digital SkySurvey (SDSS). The carbon, nitrogen and oxygen abundances rely on molecular lines which form in the outer layers of the stellar atmosphere. It is known that convection in metal-poor stars induces very low temperatures which are not predicted by `classical' 1D stellar atmospheres. To obtain the correct temperature structure, one needs full 3D hydrodynamical models. Using CO5BOLD 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres and the Linfor3D line formation code, molecular lines of CH, NH, OH and C2 were computed, and 3D carbon, nitrogen and oxygen abundances were determined. The resulting carbon abundances were compared to abundances derived using atomic CI lines in 1D LTE and NLTE. There is not a good agreement between the carbon abundances determined from C2 bands and from the CH band, and molecular lines do not agree with the atomic CI lines. Although this may be partly due to uncertainties in the transition probabilities of the molecular bands it certainly has to do with the temperature structure of the outer layers of the adopted model atmosphere. We explore the influence of the 3D model properties on the molecular abundance determination. In particular, the choice of the number of opacity bins used in the model calculations and its subsequent effects on the temperature structure and molecular line formation is discussed. (Abridged)

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arXiv2009

The Solar Photospheric Nitrogen Abundance: Determination with 3D and 1D Model Atmospheres

We present a new determination of the solar nitrogen abundance making use of 3D hydrodynamical modelling of the solar photosphere, which is more physically motivated than traditional static 1D models. We selected suitable atomic spectral lines, relying on equivalent width measurements already existing in the literature. For atmospheric modelling we used the co 5 bold 3D radiation hydrodynamics code. We investigated the influence of both deviations from local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE effects) and photospheric inhomogeneities (granulation effects) on the resulting abundance. We also compared several atlases of solar flux and centre-disc intensity presently available. As a result of our analysis, the photospheric solar nitrogen abundance is A(N) = 7.86 +/- 0.12.

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arXiv2009

Solar abundances and 3D model atmospheres

We present solar photospheric abundances for 12 elements from optical and near-infrared spectroscopy. The abundance analysis was conducted employing 3D hydrodynamical (CO5BOLD) as well as standard 1D hydrostatic model atmospheres. We compare our results to others with emphasis on discrepancies and still lingering problems, in particular exemplified by the pivotal abundance of oxygen. We argue that the thermal structure of the lower solar photosphere is very well represented by our 3D model. We obtain an excellent match of the observed center-to-limb variation of the line-blanketed continuum intensity, also at wavelengths shortward of the Balmer jump.

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arXiv2009

Accuracy of spectroscopy-based radioactive dating of stars

Combined spectroscopic abundance analyses of stable and radioactive elements can be applied for deriving stellar ages. The achievable precision depends on factors related to spectroscopy, nucleosynthesis, and chemical evolution. We quantify the uncertainties arising from the spectroscopic analysis, and compare these to the other error sources. We derive formulae for the age uncertainties arising from the spectroscopic abundance analysis, and apply them to spectroscopic and nucleosynthetic data compiled from the literature for the Sun and metal-poor stars. We obtained ready-to-use analytic formulae of the age uncertainty for the cases of stable+unstable and unstable+unstable chronometer pairs, and discuss the optimal relation between to-be-measured age and mean lifetime of a radioactive species. Application to the literature data indicates that, for a single star, the achievable spectroscopic accuracy is limited to about +/- 20% for the foreseeable future. At present, theoretical uncertainties in nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution models form the precision bottleneck. For stellar clusters, isochrone fitting provides a higher accuracy than radioactive dating, but radioactive dating becomes competitive when applied to many cluster members simultaneously, reducing the statistical errors by a factor sqrt(N). Spectroscopy-based radioactive stellar dating would benefit from improvements in the theoretical understanding of nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution. Its application to clusters can provide strong constraints for nucleosynthetic models.

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arXiv2009

The CoRoT target HD 49933: 1- Role of the metal abundance

Solar-like oscillations are stochastically excited by turbulent convection at the surface layers of the stars. We study the role of the surface metal abundance on the efficiency of the stochastic driving in the case of the CoRoT target HD 49933. We compute two 3D hydrodynamical simulations representative -- in effective temperature and gravity -- of the surface layers of the CoRoT target HD 49933, a star that is rather metal poor and significantly hotter compared to the Sun. One 3D simulation has a solar metal abundance and the other has a surface iron-to-hydrogen, [Fe/H], abundance ten times smaller. For each 3D simulation we match an associated global 1D model and we compute the associated acoustic modes using a theoretical model of stochastic excitation validated in the case of the Sun and Alpha Cen A. The rate at which energy is supplied per unit time into the acoustic modes associated with the 3D simulation with [Fe/H]=-1 are found about three times smaller than those associated with the 3D simulation with [Fe/H]=0. As shown here, these differences are related to the fact that low metallicity implies surface layers with a higher mean density. In turn, a higher mean density favors smaller convective velocities and hence less efficient driving of the acoustic modes. Our result shows the importance of taking the surface metal abundance into account in the modeling of the mode driving by turbulent convection. A comparison with observational data is presented in a companion paper using seismic data obtained for the CoRoT target HD 49933.

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arXiv2009

The CoRoT target HD 49933: 2- Comparison of theoretical mode amplitudes with observations

From the seismic data obtained by CoRoT for the star HD 49933 it is possible, as for the Sun, to constrain models of the excitation of acoustic modes by turbulent convection. We compare a stochastic excitation model described in Paper I (arXiv:0910.4027) with the asteroseismology data for HD 49933, a star that is rather metal poor and significantly hotter than the Sun. Using the mode linewidths measured by CoRoT for HD 49933 and the theoretical mode excitation rates computed in Paper I, we derive the expected surface velocity amplitudes of the acoustic modes detected in HD 49933. Using a calibrated quasi-adiabatic approximation relating the mode amplitudes in intensity to those in velocity, we derive the expected values of the mode amplitude in intensity. Our amplitude calculations are within 1-sigma error bars of the mode surface velocity spectrum derived with the HARPS spectrograph. The same is found with the mode amplitudes in intensity derived for HD 49933 from the CoRoT data. On the other hand, at high frequency, our calculations significantly depart from the CoRoT and HARPS measurements. We show that assuming a solar metal abundance rather than the actual metal abundance of the star would result in a larger discrepancy with the seismic data. Furthermore, calculations that assume the ``new'' solar chemical mixture are in better agreement with the seismic data than those that assume the ``old'' solar chemical mixture. These results validate, in the case of a star significantly hotter than the Sun and Alpha Cen A, the main assumptions in the model of stochastic excitation. However, the discrepancies seen at high frequency highlight some deficiencies of the modelling, whose origin remains to be understood.

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arXiv2009

6Li in metal-poor halo stars: real or spurious?

The presence of convective motions in the atmospheres of metal-poor halo stars leads to systematic asymmetries of the emergent spectral line profiles. Since such line asymmetries are very small, they can be safely ignored for standard spectroscopic abundance analysis. However, when it comes to the determination of the 6Li/7Li isotopic ratio, q(Li)=n(6Li)/n(7Li), the intrinsic asymmetry of the 7Li line must be taken into account, because its signature is essentially indistinguishable from the presence of a weak 6Li blend in the red wing of the 7Li line. In this contribution we quantity the error of the inferred 6Li/7Li isotopic ratio that arises if the convective line asymmetry is ignored in the fitting of the lithium blend at 6707 A. Our conclusion is that 6Li/7Li ratios derived by Asplund et al. (2006), using symmetric line profiles, must be reduced by typically dq(Li) ~ 0.015. This diminishes the number of certain 6Li detections from 9 to 4 stars or less, casting some doubt on the existence of a 6Li plateau.

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arXiv2009

3D hydrodynamical simulations of stellar photospheres with the CO5BOLD code: photometric colors of a late-type giant

We present synthetic broad-band photometric colors of a late-type giant located close to the RGB tip (T_eff = 3640 K, log g = 1.0 and [M/H] = 0.0). Johnson-Cousins-Glass BVRIJHK colors were obtained from the spectral energy distributions calculated using 3D hydrodynamical and 1D classical stellar atmosphere models. The differences between photometric magnitudes and colors predicted by the two types of models are significant, especially at optical wavelengths where they may reach, e.g., ΔV~0.16, ΔR~0.13 and Δ(V-I)~0.14, Δ(V-K)~0.20. Differences in the near-infrared are smaller but still non-negligible (e.g., ΔK~0.04). Such discrepancies may lead to noticeably different photometric parameters when these are inferred from photometry (e.g., effective temperature will change by ΔT_eff~60 K due to difference of Δ(V-K)~0.20).

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arXiv2009

Effects of granulation on neutral copper resonance lines in metal-poor stars

We make use of three dimensional hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the effects of granulation on the Cu I lines of Mult. 1 in the near UV, at 324.7 nm and 327.3 nm. These lines remain strong even at very low metallicity and provide the opportunity to study the chemical evolution of Cu in the metal-poor populations. We find very strong granulation effects on these lines. In terms of abundances the neglect of such effects can lead to an overestimate of the A(Cu) by as much as 0.8 dex in dwarf stars. Comparison of our computations with stars in the metal-poor Globular Clusters NGC 6752 and NGC 6397, show that there is a systematic discrepancy between the copper abundances derived from Mult. 2 in TO stars and those derived in giant stars of the same cluster from the lines of Mult. 2 at at 510.5 nm and 587.2 nm. We conclude that the Cu I resonance lines are not reliable indicators of Cu abundance and we believe that an investigations of departures from LTE is mandatory to make use of these lines.

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arXiv2009

Solar abundances and granulation effects

The solar abundances have undergone a major downward revision in the last decade, reputedly as a result of employing 3D hydrodynamical simulations to model the inhomogeneous structure of the solar photosphere. The very low oxygen abundance advocated by Asplund et al. (2004), A(O)=8.66, together with the downward revision of the carbon and nitrogen abundances, has created serious problems for solar models to explain the helioseismic measurements. In an effort to contribute to the dispute we have re-derived photospheric abundances of several elements independently of previous analysis. We applied a state-of-the art 3D (CO5BOLD) hydrodynamical simulation of the solar granulation as well as different 1D model atmospheres for the line by line spectroscopic abundance determinations. The analysis is based on both standard disc-centre and disc-integrated spectral atlases; for oxygen we acquired in addition spectra at different heliocentric angles. The derived abundances are the result of equivalent width and/or line profile fitting of the available atomic lines. We discuss the different granulation effects on solar abundances and compare our results with previous investigations. According to our investigations hydrodynamical models are important in the solar abundance determination, but are not responsible for the recent downward revision in the literature of the solar metallicity.

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arXiv2009

Micro- and macroturbulence derived from 3D hydrodynamical stellar atmospheres

The theoretical prediction of micro- and macroturbulence (xi_mic and xi_mac) as a function of stellar parameters can be useful for spectroscopic work based on 1D model atmospheres in cases where an empirical determination of xi_mic is impossible due to a lack of suitable lines and/or macroturbulence and rotational line broadening are difficult to separate. In an effort to exploit the CIFIST 3D model atmosphere grid for deriving the theoretical dependence of xi_mic and xi_mac on effective temperature, gravity, and metallicity, we discuss different methods to derive xi_mic from the numerical simulations, and report first results for the Sun and Procyon. In both cases the preliminary analysis indicates that the microturbulence found in the simulations is significantly lower than in the real stellar atmospheres.

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arXiv2009

3D simulations of M star atmosphere velocities and their influence on molecular FeH lines

We present an investigation of the velocity fields in early to late M-type star hydrodynamic models, and we simulate their influence on FeH molecular line shapes. The M star model parameters range between log g of 3.0 - 5.0 and Teff of 2500 K and 4000 K. Our aim is to characterize the Teff- and log g -dependence of the velocity fields and express them in terms of micro- and macro-turbulent velocities in the one dimensional sense. We present also a direct comparison between 3D hydrodynamical velocity fields and 1D turbulent velocities. The velocity fields strongly affect the line shapes of FeH, and it is our goal to give a rough estimate for the log g and Teff parameter range in which 3D spectral synthesis is necessary and where 1D synthesis suffices. In order to calculate M-star structure models we employ the 3D radiative-hydrodynamics (RHD) code CO5BOLD. The spectral synthesis on these models is performed with the line synthesis code LINFOR3D. We describe the 3D velocity fields in terms of a Gaussian standard deviation and project them onto the line of sight to include geometrical and limb-darkening effects. The micro- and macro-turbulent velocities are determined with the "Curve of Growth" method and convolution with a Gaussian velocity profile, respectively. To characterize the log g and Teff dependence of FeH lines, the equivalent width, line width, and line depth are regarded. The velocity fields in M-stars strongly depend on log g and Teff. They become stronger with decreasing log g and increasing Teff.

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arXiv2009

Can we trust elemental abundances derived in late-type giants with the classical 1D stellar atmosphere models?

We compare the abundances of various chemical species as derived with 3D hydrodynamical and classical 1D stellar atmosphere codes in a late-type giant characterized by T_eff=3640K, log g = 1.0, [M/H] = 0.0. For this particular set of atmospheric parameters the 3D-1D abundance differences are generally small for neutral atoms and molecules but they may reach up to 0.3-0.4 dex in case of ions. The 3D-1D differences generally become increasingly more negative at higher excitation potentials and are typically largest in the optical wavelength range. Their sign can be both positive and negative, and depends on the excitation potential and wavelength of a given spectral line. While our results obtained with this particular late-type giant model suggest that 1D stellar atmosphere models may be safe to use with neutral atoms and molecules, care should be taken if they are exploited with ions.

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arXiv2009

Lithium in the Globular Cluster NGC 6397: Evidence for dependence on evolutionary status

Most Globular Clusters are believed to host a single stellar populations. They can thus be considered a good place to study the Spite plateau and probe for possible evolutionary modifications of the Li content. We want to determine the Li content of subgiant (SG) and Main Sequence (MS) stars of the old, metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6397. This work was aimed not only at studying possible Li abundance variations but to investigate the cosmological Li discrepancy. Here, we present FLAMES/GIRAFFE observations of a sample of 84 SG and 79 MS stars in NGC 6397 selected in a narrow range of B-V colour and, therefore, effective temperatures. We determine both Teff and A(Li) using 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres for all the MS and SG stars of the sample. We find a significant difference in the Li abundance between SG stars and MS stars, the SG stars having an A(Li) higher by almost 0.1 dex on average. We also find a decrease in the A(Li) with decreasing Teff, both in MS and SG stars, albeit with a significantly different slope for the two classes of stars. This suggests that the lithium abundance in these stars is, indeed, altered by some process, which is Teff-dependent. The Li abundance pattern observed in NGC 6397 is different from what is found among field stars, casting some doubt on the use of Globular Cluster stars as representative of Population II with respect to the Li abundance. None of the available theories of Li depletion appears to satisfactorily describe our observations.

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arXiv2009

The CIFIST 3D model atmosphere grid

Grids of stellar atmosphere models and associated synthetic spectra are numerical products which have a large impact in astronomy due to their ubiquitous application in the interpretation of radiation from individual stars and stellar populations. 3D model atmospheres are now on the verge of becoming generally available for a wide range of stellar atmospheric parameters. We report on efforts to develop a grid of 3D model atmospheres for late-type stars within the CIFIST Team at Paris Observatory. The substantial demands in computational and human labor for the model production and post-processing render this apparently mundane task a challenging logistic exercise. At the moment the CIFIST grid comprises 77 3D model atmospheres with emphasis on dwarfs of solar and sub-solar metallicities. While the model production is still ongoing, first applications are already worked upon by the CIFIST Team and collaborators.

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arXiv2009

Accounting for Convective Blue-Shifts in the Determination of Absolute Stellar Radial Velocities

For late-type non-active stars, gravitational redshifts and convective blueshifts are the main source of biases in the determination of radial velocities. If ignored, these effects can introduce systematic errors of the order of ~ 0.5 km/s. We demonstrate that three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of solar surface convection can be used to predict the convective blue-shifts of weak spectral lines in solar-like stars to ~ 0.070 km/s. Using accurate trigonometric parallaxes and stellar evolution models, the gravitational redshifts can be constrained with a similar uncertainty, leading to absolute radial velocities accurate to better than ~ 0.1 km/s.

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arXiv2009

Detailed analyses of three neutron-capture-rich carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars

Approximately 20% of very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] < -2.0) are strongly enhanced in carbon ([C/Fe] > +1.0). Such stars are referred to as carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars. We present a chemical abundance analysis based on high resolution spectra acquired with UVES at the VLT of three dwarf CEMP stars: SDSS J1349-0229, SDSS J0912+0216 and SDSS J1036+1212. These very metal-poor stars, with [Fe/H] < -2.5, were selected from our ongoing survey of extremely metal-poor dwarf candidates from the SDSS. Among these CEMPs, SDSS J1349-0229 has been identified as a carbon star ([C/O] > +1.0). First and second peak s-process elements, as well as second peak r-process elements have been detected in all stars. In addition, elements from the third r-process peak were detected in one of the stars, SDSS J1036+1212. We present the abundance results of these stars in the context of neutron-capture nucleosynthesis theories.

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