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Jon Holtzman

Publications and source records attributed to Jon Holtzman.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

The Nineteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Mapping the local and distant Universe is key to our understanding of it. For decades, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has made a concerted effort to map millions of celestial objects to constrain the physical processes that govern our Universe. The most recent and fifth generation of SDSS (SDSS-V) is organized into three scientific ``mappers". Milky Way Mapper (MWM) that aims to chart the various components of the Milky Way and constrain its formation and assembly, Black Hole Mapper (BHM), which focuses on understanding supermassive black holes in distant galaxies across the Universe, and Local Volume Mapper (LVM), which uses integral field spectroscopy to map the ionized interstellar medium in the local group. This paper describes and outlines the scope and content for the nineteenth data release (DR19) of SDSS and the most substantial to date in SDSS-V. DR19 is the first to contain data from all three mappers. Additionally, we also describe nine value added catalogs (VACs) that enhance the science that can be conducted with the SDSS-V data. Finally, we discuss how to access SDSS DR19 and provide illustrative examples and tutorials.

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Apache Point Observatory follow-up of ACcelerating Candidate ExopLanet host Stars (APO ACCELS): Ages for 166 Accelerating Stars in the Northern Hemisphere

Directly imaged substellar companions with well-constrained ages and masses serve as vital empirical benchmarks for planet formation and evolution models. Potential benchmark companions can be identified from astrometric accelerations of their host stars. We use Gaia DR3 and Hipparcos astrometry to identify 166 northern hemisphere stars with astrometric accelerations consistent with a substellar companion between 0.5'' and 1''. For this accelerating sample we identify young stars using APO/ARCES spectra and TESS light curves. From spectroscopic screening of the sample, we measure ages for 24 stars with detectable amounts of lithium, place lower age limits on 135 stars with lithium non-detections, and measure ages from R'HK for 34 stars. 129 stars have TESS light curves from which we measure ages for 20 stars with rotation rates < 15 days, and we identify 3 eclipsing binaries. We present median ages and confidence intervals of age posteriors for the entire sample and discuss how the overall age distribution of our sample compares to a uniform star formation rate in the solar neighborhood. We identify 47 stars with median ages < 2 Gyr, 31 stars with median ages < 1 Gyr, and 14 stars with median ages < 0.5 Gyr, making them high-priority targets for direct imaging follow-up.

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Carbon enrichment in APOGEE disk stars as evidence of mass transfer in binaries

Carbon abundances in first-ascent giant stars are usually lower than those of their main-sequence counterparts. At moderate metallicities, stellar evolution of single stars cannot account for the existence of red-giant branch stars with enhanced carbon abundances. The phenomenon is usually interpreted as resulting from past mass transfer from an evolved binary companion now in the white dwarf evolutionary stage. Aims: We aim to confirm the links between [C/O] enhancement, s-process element enhancement and binary fraction using large-scale catalogues of stellar abundances and probable binary stars. Methods: We use a large data set from the 17 data release of the SDSS-IV/APOGEE~2 survey to identify carbon-enhanced stars in the Galactic disk. We identify a continuum of carbon enrichment throughout three different sub-populations of disk stars and explore links between the degree of carbon enrichment and binary frequency, metallicity and chemical compositions. Results: We verify a clear correlation between binary frequency and enhancement in the abundances of both carbon and cerium, lending support to the scenario whereby carbon-enhanced stars are the result of mass transfer by an evolved binary companion. In addition, we identify clustering in the carbon abundances of high-$\alpha$ disk stars, suggesting that those on the high metallicity end are likely younger, in agreement with theoretical predictions for the presence of a starburst population following the gas-rich merger of the Gaia-Enceladus/Sausage system.

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The Chemodynamics of the Stellar Populations in M31 from APOGEE Integrated Light Spectroscopy

We present analysis of nearly 1,000 near-infrared, integrated light spectra from APOGEE in the inner $\sim$7 kpc of M31. We utilize full spectrum fitting with A-LIST simple stellar population spectral templates that represent a population of stars with the same age, [M/H], and [$\alpha$/M]. With this, we determine the mean kinematics, metallicities, $\alpha$ abundances, and ages of the stellar populations of M31's bar, bulge, and inner disk ($\sim$4-7 kpc). We find a non-axisymmetric velocity field in M31 resulting from the presence of a bar. The bulge of M31 is metal-poor relative to the disk ([M/H] = $-0.149^{+0.067}_{-0.081}$ dex), features minima in metallicity on either side of the bar ([M/H] $\sim$ -0.2), and is enhanced in $\alpha$ abundance ([$\alpha$/M] = $0.281^{+0.035}_{-0.038}$). The disk of M31 within $\sim$7 kpc is enhanced in both metallicity ([M/H] = $-0.023^{+0.050}_{-0.052}$) and $\alpha$ abundance ([$\alpha$/M] = $0.274^{+0.020}_{-0.025}$). Both of these structural components are uniformly old at $\simeq$ 12 Gyr. We find the metallicity increases with distance from the center of M31, with the steepest gradient along the disk major axis ($0.043\pm0.021$ dex/kpc). This gradient is the result of changing light contributions from the metal-poor bulge and metal-rich disk. The chemodynamics of stellar populations encodes information about a galaxy's chemical enrichment, star formation history, and merger history, allowing us to discuss new constraints on M31's formation. Our results provide a stepping stone between our understanding of the Milky Way and other external galaxies.

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

Galactic haloes in a $\Lambda$-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.

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Final Targeting Strategy for the SDSS-IV APOGEE-2N Survey

APOGEE-2 is a dual-hemisphere, near-infrared (NIR), spectroscopic survey with the goal of producing a chemo-dynamical mapping of the Milky Way Galaxy. The targeting for APOGEE-2 is complex and has evolved with time. In this paper, we present the updates and additions to the initial targeting strategy for APOGEE-2N presented in Zasowski et al. (2017). These modifications come in two implementation modes: (i) "Ancillary Science Programs" competitively awarded to SDSS-IV PIs through proposal calls in 2015 and 2017 for the pursuit of new scientific avenues outside the main survey, and (ii) an effective 1.5-year expansion of the survey, known as the Bright Time Extension, made possible through accrued efficiency gains over the first years of the APOGEE-2N project. For the 23 distinct ancillary programs, we provide descriptions of the scientific aims, target selection, and how to identify these targets within the APOGEE-2 sample. The Bright Time Extension permitted changes to the main survey strategy, the inclusion of new programs in response to scientific discoveries or to exploit major new datasets not available at the outset of the survey design, and expansions of existing programs to enhance their scientific success and reach. After describing the motivations, implementation, and assessment of these programs, we also leave a summary of lessons learned from nearly a decade of APOGEE-1 and APOGEE-2 survey operations. A companion paper, Santana et al. (submitted), provides a complementary presentation of targeting modifications relevant to APOGEE-2 operations in the Southern Hemisphere.

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Double-lined spectroscopic binaries in the APOGEE DR16 and DR17 data

APOGEE spectra offer $\lesssim$1 km s$^{-1}$ precision in the measurement of stellar radial velocities (RVs). This holds even when multiple stars are captured in the same spectrum, as happens most commonly with double-lined spectroscopic binaries (SB2s), although random line of sight alignments of unrelated stars can also occur. We develop a code that autonomously identifies SB2s and higher order multiples in the APOGEE spectra, resulting in 7273 candidate SB2s, 813 SB3s, and 19 SB4s. We estimate the mass ratios of binaries, and for a subset of these systems with sufficient number of measurements we perform a complete orbital fit, confirming that most systems with period $<$10 days have circularized. Overall, we find a SB2 fraction ($F_{SB2}$) $\sim$3\% among main sequence dwarfs, and that there is not a significant trend in $F_{SB2}$ with temperature of a star. We are also able to recover a higher $F_{SB2}$ in sources with lower metallicity, however there are some observational biases. We also examine light curves from TESS to determine which of these spectroscopic binaries are also eclipsing. Such systems, particularly those that are also pre- and post-main sequence, are good candidates for a follow-up analysis to determine their masses and temperatures.

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The APOGEE Data Release 16 Spectral Line List

The updated H-band spectral line list (from \lambda 15,000 - 17,000\AA) adopted by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) for the SDSS IV Data Release 16 (DR16) is presented here. The APOGEE line list is a combination of atomic and molecular lines with data from laboratory, theoretical, and astrophysical sources. Oscillator strengths and damping constants are adjusted using high signal-to-noise, high-resolution spectra of the Sun and alpha Boo (Arcturus) as "standard stars". Updates to the DR16 line list, when compared to the previous DR14 version, are the inclusion of molecular H_2O and FeH lines, as well as a much larger (by a factor of ~4) atomic line list, which includes significantly more transitions with hyperfine splitting. More recent references and line lists for the crucial molecules CO and OH were used, as well as for C_2 and SiH. In contrast to DR14, DR16 contains measurable lines from the heavy neutron-capture elements cerium (as Ce II), neodymium (as Nd II), and ytterbium (as Yb II), as well as one line from rubidium (as Rb I), that may be detectable in a small fraction of APOGEE red giants.

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Evidence from APOGEE for the presence of a major building block of the halo buried in the inner Galaxy

We report evidence from APOGEE for the presence of a new metal-poor stellar structure located within $\sim$4~kpc of the Galactic centre. Characterised by a chemical composition resembling those of low mass satellites of the Milky Way, this new inner Galaxy structure (IGS) seems to be chemically and dynamically detached from more metal-rich populations in the inner Galaxy. We conjecture that this structure is associated with an accretion event that likely occurred in the early life of the Milky Way. Comparing the mean elemental abundances of this structure with predictions from cosmological numerical simulations, we estimate that the progenitor system had a stellar mass of $\sim5\times10^8M_\odot$, or approximately twice the mass of the recently discovered Gaia-Enceladus/Sausage system. We find that the accreted:{\it in situ} ratio within our metal-poor ([Fe/H]$<$--0.8) bulge sample is somewhere between 1:3 and 1:2, confirming predictions of cosmological numerical simulations by various groups.

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The Similarity of Abundance Ratio Trends and Nucleosynthetic Patterns in the Milky Way Disk and Bulge

We compare abundance ratio trends in a sample of $\sim 11,000$ Milky Way bulge stars ($R_{\rm GC} < 3$ kpc) from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) to those of APOGEE stars in the Galactic disk ($5$ kpc $< R_{\rm GC} < 11$ kpc). We divide each sample into low-Ia (high-[Mg/Fe]) and high-Ia (low-[Mg/Fe]) populations, and in each population we examine the median trends of [X/Mg] vs. [Mg/H] for elements X = Fe, O, Na, Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, and Ce. To remove small systematic trends of APOGEE abundances with stellar $\log(g)$, we resample the disk stars to match the $\log(g)$ distributions of the bulge data. After doing so, we find nearly identical median trends for low-Ia disk and bulge stars for all elements. High-Ia trends are similar for most elements, with noticeable (0.05-0.1 dex) differences for Mn, Na, and Co. The close agreement of abundance trends (with typical differences $\lesssim 0.03$ dex) implies that similar nucleosynthetic processes enriched bulge and disk stars despite the different star formation histories and physical conditions of these regions. For example, we infer that differences in the high mass slope of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) between disk and bulge must have been $\lesssim 0.30$. This agreement, and the generally small scatter about the median sequences, means that one can predict all of a bulge star's APOGEE abundances with good accuracy knowing only its measured [Mg/Fe] and [Mg/H] and the observed trends of disk stars.

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Homogeneous Analysis of Globular Clusters from the APOGEE Survey with the BACCHUS Code. II. The Southern Clusters and Overview

We investigate the Fe, C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ce and Nd abundances of 2283 red giant stars in 31 globular clusters from high-resolution spectra observed in both the northern and southern hemisphere by the SDSS-IV APOGEE-2 survey. This unprecedented homogeneous dataset, largest to date, allows us to discuss the intrinsic Fe spread, the shape and statistics of Al-Mg and N-C anticorrelations as a function of cluster mass, luminosity, age and metallicity for all 31 clusters. We find that the Fe spread does not depend on these parameters within our uncertainties including cluster metallicity, contradicting earlier observations. We do not confirm the metallicity variations previously observed in M22 and NGC 1851. Some clusters show a bimodal Al distribution, while others exhibit a continuous distribution as has been previously reported in the literature. We confirm more than 2 populations in $ω$ Cen and NGC 6752, and find new ones in M79. We discuss the scatter of Al by implementing a correction to the standard chemical evolution of Al in the Milky Way. After correction, its dependence on cluster mass is increased suggesting that the extent of Al enrichment as a function of mass was suppressed before the correction. We observe a turnover in the Mg-Al anticorrelation at very low Mg in $ω$ Cen, similar to the pattern previously reported in M15 and M92. $ω$ Cen may also have a weak K-Mg anticorrelation, and if confirmed, it would be only the third cluster known to show such a pattern.

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The Lazy Giants: APOGEE Abundances Reveal Low Star Formation Efficiencies in the Magellanic Clouds

We report the first APOGEE metallicities and alpha-element abundances measured for 3600 red giant stars spanning a large radial range of both the Large (LMC) and Small Magellanic Clouds (SMC), the largest Milky Way dwarf galaxies. Our sample is an order of magnitude larger than that of previous studies, and extends to much larger radial distances. These are the first results presented that make use of the newly installed Southern APOGEE instrument on the du Pont telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. Our unbiased sample of the LMC spans a large range in metallicity, from [Fe/H]=-0.2 to very metal-poor stars with [Fe/H]=-2.5, the most metal-poor Magellanic Clouds (MCs) stars detected to date. The LMC [alpha/Fe]-[Fe/H] distribution is very flat over a large metallicity range, but rises by ~0.1 dex at -1.0<[Fe/H]<-0.5. We interpret this as a sign of the known recent increase in MC star-formation activity, and are able to reproduce the pattern with a chemical evolution model that includes a recent "starburst". At the metal-poor end, we capture the increase of [alpha/Fe] with decreasing [Fe/H], and constrain the "alpha-knee" to [Fe/H]<-2.2 in both MCs, implying a low star-formation efficiency of ~0.01 Gyr^-1. The MC knees are more metal poor than those of less massive Milky Way (MW) dwarf galaxies such as Fornax, Sculptor, or Sagittarius. One possible interpretation is that the MCs formed in a lower-density environment than the MW, a hypothesis that is consistent with the paradigm that the MCs fell into the MW's gravitational potential only recently.

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SDSS-IV MaStar -- A Large and Comprehensive Empirical Stellar Spectral Library: First Release

We present the first release of the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), which is a large, well-calibrated, high-quality empirical library covering the wavelength range of 3,622-10,354A at a resolving power of R~1800. The spectra were obtained using the same instrument as used by the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) project, by piggybacking on the SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2N observations. Compared to previous empirical libraries, the MaStar library will have a higher number of stars and a more comprehensive stellar-parameter coverage, especially of cool dwarfs, low-metallicity stars, and stars with different [alpha/Fe], achieved by a sophisticated target selection strategy that takes advantage of stellar-parameter catalogs from the literature. This empirical library will provide a new basis for stellar population synthesis, and is particularly well-suited for stellar-population analysis of MaNGA galaxies. The first version of the library contains 8646 high-quality per-visit spectra for 3321 unique stars. Compared to photometry, the relative flux calibration of the library is accurate to 3.9% in g-r, 2.7% in r-i, and 2.2% in i-z. The data are released as part of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 15. We expect the final release of the library to contain more than 10,000 stars.

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Chemical Abundances of Main-Sequence, Turnoff, Subgiant and red giant Stars from APOGEE spectra II: Atomic Diffusion in M67 Stars

Chemical abundances for 15 elements (C, N, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, and Ni) are presented for 83 stellar members of the 4 Gyr old solar-metallicity open cluster M67. The sample contains stars spanning a wide range of evolutionary phases, from G dwarfs to red clump stars. The abundances were derived from near-IR ($λ$1.5 -- 1.7$μ$m) high-resolution spectra ($R$ = 22,500) from the SDSS-IV/APOGEE survey. A 1-D LTE abundance analysis was carried out using the APOGEE synthetic spectral libraries, via chi-square minimization of the synthetic and observed spectra with the qASPCAP code. We found significant abundance differences ($\sim$0.05 -- 0.30 dex) between the M67 member stars as a function of the stellar mass (or position on the HR diagram), where the abundance patterns exhibit a general depletion (in [X/H]) in stars at the main-sequence turnoff. The amount of the depletion is different for different elements. We find that atomic diffusion models provide, in general, good agreement with the abundance trends for most chemical species, supporting recent studies indicating that measurable atomic diffusion operates in M67 stars.

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The origin of accreted stellar halo populations in the Milky Way using APOGEE, $\textit{Gaia}$, and the EAGLE simulations

Recent work indicates that the nearby Galactic halo is dominated by the debris from a major accretion event. We confirm that result from an analysis of APOGEE-DR14 element abundances and $\textit{Gaia}$-DR2 kinematics of halo stars. We show that $\sim$2/3 of nearby halo stars have high orbital eccentricities ($e \gtrsim 0.8$), and abundance patterns typical of massive Milky Way dwarf galaxy satellites today, characterised by relatively low [Fe/H], [Mg/Fe], [Al/Fe], and [Ni/Fe]. The trend followed by high $e$ stars in the [Mg/Fe]-[Fe/H] plane shows a change of slope at [Fe/H]$\sim-1.3$, which is also typical of stellar populations from relatively massive dwarf galaxies. Low $e$ stars exhibit no such change of slope within the observed [Fe/H] range and show slightly higher abundances of Mg, Al and Ni. Unlike their low $e$ counterparts, high $e$ stars show slightly retrograde motion, make higher vertical excursions and reach larger apocentre radii. By comparing the position in [Mg/Fe]-[Fe/H] space of high $e$ stars with those of accreted galaxies from the EAGLE suite of cosmological simulations we constrain the mass of the accreted satellite to be in the range $10^{8.5}\lesssim M_*\lesssim 10^{9}\mathrm{M_\odot}$. We show that the median orbital eccentricities of debris are largely unchanged since merger time, implying that this accretion event likely happened at $z\lesssim1.5$. The exact nature of the low $e$ population is unclear, but we hypothesise that it is a combination of $\textit{in situ}$ star formation, high $|z|$ disc stars, lower mass accretion events, and contamination by the low $e$ tail of the high $e$ population. Finally, our results imply that the accretion history of the Milky Way was quite unusual.

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The Second APOKASC Catalog: The Empirical Approach

We present a catalog of stellar properties for a large sample of 6676 evolved stars with APOGEE spectroscopic parameters and \textit{Kepler} asteroseismic data analyzed using five independent techniques. Our data includes evolutionary state, surface gravity, mean density, mass, radius, age, and the spectroscopic and asteroseismic measurements used to derive them. We employ a new empirical approach for combining asteroseismic measurements from different methods, calibrating the inferred stellar parameters, and estimating uncertainties. With high statistical significance, we find that asteroseismic parameters inferred from the different pipelines have systematic offsets that are not removed by accounting for differences in their solar reference values. We include theoretically motivated corrections to the large frequency spacing ($Δν$) scaling relation, and we calibrate the zero point of the frequency of maximum power ($ν_{\rm max}$) relation to be consistent with masses and radii for members of star clusters. For most targets, the parameters returned by different pipelines are in much better agreement than would be expected from the pipeline-predicted random errors, but 22\% of them had at least one method not return a result and a much larger measurement dispersion. This supports the usage of multiple analysis techniques for asteroseismic stellar population studies. The measured dispersion in mass estimates for fundamental calibrators is consistent with our error model, which yields median random and systematic mass uncertainties for RGB stars of order 4\%. Median random and systematic mass uncertainties are at the 9\% and 8\% level respectively for RC stars.

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Age-resolved chemistry of red giants in the solar neighbourhood

In the age of high-resolution spectroscopic stellar surveys of the Milky Way, the number of stars with detailed abundances of multiple elements is rapidly increasing. These elemental abundances are directly influenced by the evolutionary history of the Galaxy, but this can be difficult to interpret without an absolute timeline of the abundance enrichment. We present age-abundance trends for [M/H], [α/M], and 17 individual elements using a sample of 721 solar neighbourhood Hipparcos red giant stars observed by APOGEE. These age trends are determined through a Bayesian hierarchical modelling method presented by Feuillet et al. (2016). We confirm that the [α/M]- age relation in the solar neighbourhood is steep and relatively narrow (0.20 dex age dispersion), as are the [O/M]- and [Mg/M]-age relations. The age trend of [C/N] is steep and smooth, consistent with stellar evolution. The [M/H]-age relation has a mean age dispersion of 0.28 dex and a complex overall structure. The oldest stars in our sample are those with the lowest and highest metallicities, while the youngest stars are those with solar metallicity. These results provide strong constraints on theoretical models of Galactic chemical evolution (GCE). We compare them to the predictions of one-zone GCE mod- els and multi-zone mixtures, both analytic and numerical. These comparisons support the hypothesis that the solar neighbourhood is composed of stars born at a range of Galactocentric radii, and that the most metal-rich stars likely migrated from a region with earlier and more rapid star formation such as the inner Galaxy.

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Chemical Abundances of Main-Sequence, Turn-off, Subgiant and red giant Stars from APOGEE spectra I: Signatures of Diffusion in the Open Cluster M67

Detailed chemical abundance distributions for fourteen elements are derived for eight high-probability stellar members of the solar metallicity old open cluster M67 with an age of $\sim$4 Gyr. The eight stars consist of four pairs, with each pair occupying a distinct phase of stellar evolution: two G-dwarfs, two turnoff stars, two G-subgiants, and two red clump K-giants. The abundance analysis uses near-IR high-resolution spectra ($λ$1.5 -- 1.7$μ$m) from the APOGEE survey and derives abundances for C, N, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, and Fe. Our derived stellar parameters and metallicity for 2M08510076+113115 suggest that this star is a solar-twin, exhibiting abundance differences relative to the Sun of $\leq$ 0.04 dex for all elements. Chemical homogeneity is found within each class of stars ($\sim$0.02 dex), while significant abundance variations ($\sim$0.05 -- 0.20 dex) are found across the different evolutionary phases; the turnoff stars typically have the lowest abundances, while the red clump tend to have the largest. Non-LTE corrections to the LTE-derived abundances are unlikely to explain the differences. A detailed comparison of the derived Fe, Mg, Si, and Ca abundances with recently published surface abundances from stellar models that include chemical diffusion, provides a good match between the observed and predicted abundances as a function of stellar mass. Such agreement would indicate the detection of chemical diffusion processes in the stellar members of M67.

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