arXiv subjects

Luca Sbordone

Publications and source records attributed to Luca Sbordone.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Extremely metal-poor stars in SDSS fields

Some insight on the first generation of stars can be obtained from the chemical composition of their direct descendants, extremely metal-poor stars (EMP), with metallicity less than or equal to 1/1000 of the solar metalllicity. Such stars are exceedingly rare, the most successful surveys, for this purpose, have so far provided only about 100 stars with 1/1000 the solar metallicity and 4 stars with about 1/10000 of the solar metallicity. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has the potential to provide a large number of candidates of extremely low metallicity. X-Shooter has the unique capability of performing the necessary follow-up spectroscopy providing accurate metallicities and abundance ratios for several elements (Mg, Al, Ca, Ti, Cr, Sr,...) for EMP candidates. We here report on the results for the first two stars observed in the course of our franco-italian X-Shooter GTO. The two stars were targeted to be of metallicity around -3.0, the analysis of the X-Shooter spectra showed them to be of metallicity around -2.0, but with a low alpha to iron ratio, which explains the underestimate of the metallicity from the SDSS spectra. The efficiency of X-Shooter allows an in situ study of the outer Halo, for the two stars studied here we estimate distances of 3.9 and 9.1 Kpc, these are likely the most distant dwarf stars studied in detail to date.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2011

Local stars formed at z>10: a sample extracted from the SDSS

As the Universe emerged from its initial hot and dense phase, its chemical composition was extremely simple, being limited to stable H and He isotopes, and traces of Li. The first stars that formed had such initial composition. However, they quickly began to produce a whole array of heavier nuclei, polluting the interstellar medium. While none among these first stars has been detected to date, an increasing sample exists of their direct descendant, stars with heavy elements content of the order of 1/1000 of the solar value, or less. In most cases, such stars should have formed at redshift of about 10 or beyond, and their chemical composition can provide crucial constraints to the nature of the very first stars. Extremely metal poor (EMP) stars are exceedingly rare. We used the low resolution spectra obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to search for EMP candidates: results of VLT-UVES high resolution follow-up for 16 of them is presented here. A newly developed automatic abundance analysis and parameter determination code, MyGIsFOS, has been employed to analyze the detailed chemical abundances of such stars.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2010

Sulphur abundances in halo stars from Multiplet 3 at 1045 nm

Sulphur is a volatile alpha-element which is not locked into dust grains in the interstellar medium (ISM). Hence, its abundance does not need to be corrected for dust depletion when comparing the ISM to the stellar atmospheres. The abundance of sulphur in the photosphere of metal-poor stars is a matter of debate: according to some authors, [S/Fe] versus [Fe/H] forms a plateau at low metallicity, while, according to other studies, there is a large scatter or perhaps a bimodal distribution. In metal-poor stars sulphur is detectable by its lines of Mult.1 at 920 nm, but this range is heavily contaminated by telluric absorptions, and one line of the multiplet is blended by the hydrogen Paschen zeta line. We study the possibility of using Mult. 3 (at 1045 nm) for deriving the sulphur abundance because this range, now observable at the VLT with the infra-red spectrograph CRIRES, is little contaminated by telluric absorption and not affected by blends at least in metal-poor stars. We compare the abundances derived from Multiplets 1 and 3, taking into account NLTE corrections and 3D effects. Here we present the results for a sample of four stars, although the scatter is less pronounced than in previous analysis, we cannot find a plateau in [S/Fe], and confirm the scatter of the sulphur abundance at low metallicity.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2008

Spectral analyses of three carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars

We are conducting a high-resolution follow-up of candidate EMP stars extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; York et al. 2000) using UVES at the VLT. Three of the programme stars, SDSS J0912+0216, SDSS J1036+1212 and SDSS J1349-0229, where deliberately targetted as CEMP stars since a strong $G$ band was evident from the SDSS spectra and the weakness of the Ca {\sc ii} K line testified their very low metallicity. The UVES high resolution follow-up confirmed the original findings ([Fe/H] $<-2.50$) and allowed a more detailed investigation of their chemical composition. We determined the carbon abundance from 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. 3D carbon abundances were determined for all three stars, using CO$^5$BOLD 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres. 3D effects on the carbon abundance are found to be quite significant for these stars, with 3D corrections of up to --0.7 dex. Two of the stars, SDSS J0912+0216 and SDSS J1349-0229 exhibit an overabundance of neutron capture elements which classifies them as CEMP-s. Star SDSS J1036+1212, instead belongs to the elusive class of CEMP-no/s stars, with enhanced Ba, but deficient Sr, of which it is the third member discovered to date.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

The solar photospheric abundance of phosphorus: results from co5bold 3D model atmospheres

aims: We determine the solar abundance of phosphorus using co5bold 3D hydrodynamic model atmospheres. method: High resolution, high signal-to-noise solar spectra of the PI lines of Multiplet 1 at 1051-1068 nm are compared to line formation computations performed on a co5bold solar model atmosphere. results: We find A(P)=5.46+- 0.04, in good agreement with previous analysis based on 1D model atmospheres, due to the fact that the PI lines of Mult. 1 are little affected by 3D effects. We cannot confirm an earlier claim by other authors of a downward revision of the solar P abundance by 0.1 dex employing a 3D model atmosphere. Concerning other stars, we found modest (<0.1 dex) 3D abundance corrections for P among four F dwarf model atmospheres of different metallicity, being largest at lowest metallicity. conclusions: We conclude that 3D abundance corrections are generally rather small for the PI lines studied in this work. They are marginally relevant for metal-poor stars, but may be neglected in the Sun.

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arXiv2007

Variations in the lithium abundances of turn off stars in the globular cluster 47 Tuc

aims: Our aim is to determine Li abundances in TO stars of the Globular Cluster 47 Tuc and test theories about Li variations among TO stars. method: We make use of high resolution (R~ 43000), high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N=50--70) spectra of 4 turn off (TO) stars obtained with the UVES spectrograph at the 8.2m VLT Kueyen telescope. results: The four stars observed, span the range 1.6<~A(Li)} <~ 2.14, providing a mean A(Li) = 1.84 with a standard deviation of 0.25 dex. When coupled with data of other two TO stars of the cluster, available in the literature, the full range in Li abundances observed in this cluster is 1.6<~A(Li)<~ 2.3. The variation in A(Li) is at least 0.6 dex (0.7 dex considering also the data available in the literature) and the scatter is six times larger than what expected from the observational error. We claim that these variations are real. A(Li) seems to be anti-correlated with A(Na) exactly as observed in NGC 6752. No systematic error in our analysis could produce such an anti-correlation. conclusions: Na production through p captures on 22Ne at temperatures in excess of 3x10^7 K and the contemporary Li destruction could result in this anti-correlation. However such nuclear processing cannot have taken place in the stars themselves, which do not reach such high temperatures, even at their centre. This points towards the processing in a previous generation of stars. The low N/O ratios in the observed stars and the apparent lack of correlation between N an Li abundances, place a strong constraint on the properties of this previous generation. Our results indicate a different behaviour among the Globular Clusters so far studied as far as the abundance patterns are concerned.

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