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Tadafumi Matsuno

Publications and source records attributed to Tadafumi Matsuno.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Bright Metal-Poor Star Survey - I. Tomo-e Gozen narrow-band photometric survey and medium-resolution spectroscopic follow-up

We present the Tomo-e Gozen Bright Metal-Poor Star Survey (TeMPS), a wide-area narrow-band photometric survey for bright metal-poor stars in the northern sky. The survey uses the Tomo-e Gozen camera on the 1.05 m Kiso Schmidt telescope with four narrow-band filters centered on the \ion{Ca}{2} H and K lines, the CH $G$ band, H$α$, and a reference wavelength region. We review the survey strategy, photometric processing, and calibration of metallicity and carbon abundance estimates derived from narrow-band colors. We further present medium-resolution spectroscopic follow-up with Nayuta/MALLS to validate the photometric selection and identify new metal-poor stars. The current data set covers $\gtrsim 22,000$deg$^{2}$ in all four bands with a total integration time of $\sim 100$ hr. The median limiting magnitudes at S/N = 20 correspond to $G\sim12.5$. By combining narrow-band photometry with archival broad-band photometry and {\it Gaia} distances, we estimate $T\_{\rm eff}$, $\log (g)$, metallicity, and carbon abundance. Calibration against literature abundances derived from high-resolution spectra shows typical scatters of $< 0.3$ dex in metallicity and $< 0.4$ dex in carbon abundance. We estimate metallicities for $\sim 1.7$ million stars and identify $\sim 16,000$ very metal-poor candidates with [M/H]$_{\rm NB,fin}<-2$. We show that Nayuta/MALLS medium-resolution spectra provide metallicities consistent with high-resolution measurements, with a scatter of $\sim 0.27$ dex. Among 32 photometrically selected candidates followed up with MALLS, 24 are confirmed to have [M/H]$_{\rm MALLS}< -2$, including one newly identified star with [M/H]$_{\rm MALLS}\simeq -3.4$. These results demonstrate that Tomo-e Gozen narrow-band photometry and MALLS medium-resolution spectroscopic follow-up efficiently select bright metal-poor stars for future high-resolution abundance studies. (abbreviated)

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Revealing α-Element's Past with Subaru/IRD: Oxygen Abundance of 35 Very Metal-Poor Stars from Near-IR OH lines

Oxygen abundances in very and extremely metal-poor (V/EMP) stars provide critical constraints on early massive stars' nucleosynthesis. An Oxygen abundance analysis is presented for 35 V/EMP stars (-4.0<[Fe/H]< -1.5) using near-infrared H-band OH vibro-rotational lines from high-resolution Subaru/IRD spectra. To examine the reliability of these NIR OH lines, the results are compared with the abundances obtained from the 3D/NLTE-insensitive forbidden [OI] 6300Å line using archival high-resolution optical spectra. After homogeneously rederiving stellar parameters and 1D/NLTE Fe abundances using Gaia photo-astrometry and literature optical Fe equivalent width data, oxygen abundance from OH and [OI] lines is determined through 1D/LTE spectral synthesis. A sensitivity analysis confirms that near-IR OH lines are highly sensitive to the adopted temperature compared to the forbidden line. A temperature-dependent discrepancy between the tracers is identified: in cool red giants (Teff <4600 K), OH-based abundances are systematically lower than [OI]-based abundance by 0.05 to 0.25 dex, while warmer red giants show higher OH-based abundances as expected from 3D effects. Despite this systematic offset, the numerous measurable NIR OH lines yield significantly smaller random abundance errors than that of the single, weak [OI] line. Leveraging this statistical precision, an empirical calibration as a function of Teff, log g, [Fe/H], and [C/Fe] is derived to align the 1D/LTE OH abundances onto the [OI] scale. Applying this correction substantially reduces the scatter and temperature dependence in the [O/Fe] versus [Fe/H] plane and flattens the trend, bringing the results into fairly good agreement with Galactic chemical evolution models.

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HRMOS: A High-Resolution Multi-Object Spectrograph for the VLT

This White Paper presents the scientific rationale and instrument concept for HRMOS (High-Resolution Multi-Object Spectrograph), a next-generation instrument proposed for the ESO Very Large Telescope within the VLT 2030 roadmap. Current and planned facilities offer either multi-object spectroscopy or ultra-high spectral resolution, but not both. HRMOS fills this gap by combining very high spectral resolution, multi-object capability, and radial-velocity stability, enabling transformative studies in Galactic and extragalactic astrophysics. The baseline design provides a resolving power of R = 80000, radial-velocity precision of 10 m s-1 (goal: 5 m s-1), simultaneous observations of 50-60 targets, and broad optical coverage down to 385 nm. These capabilities enable precise measurements of elemental abundances, isotopic ratios, line profiles, and radial velocities for large stellar samples, including crowded fields, star clusters, the Galactic bulge, and nearby dwarf galaxies. HRMOS will address key questions on the age of the oldest stellar populations through nucleocosmochronology, the formation and survival of planetary systems, the assembly history of the Milky Way and satellites, the origin of the heaviest elements, stellar evolution, and the chemical and dynamical properties of the interstellar and circumgalactic medium. It will bridge large spectroscopic surveys and the next generation of extremely large telescopes, with strong synergies with 4MOST, Gaia, TESS, PLATO, the proposed Haydn mission, and future ELT instruments. Building on VLT/FLAMES heritage, HRMOS represents a strategic investment for European astronomy in the 2030s.

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A Systematic NLTE Study of Very Metal-Poor Stars with Metallicity Down to $-4.3$ dex. II. Lithium Abundance and New Insight to the Lithium Plateau

Metal-poor stars are crucially important for understanding the early Galaxy, first stars, and the Universe. In this series of papers, we present a homogeneous non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) abundances analysis of 12 elements for 103 very/extremely metal-poor (VMP/EMP) stars with metallicity down to $-4.3$ dex. The sample was selected from the LAMOST survey and observed by the high-resolution spectroscopy of Subaru. In this paper, we present the NLTE abundances and evolution of lithium in these stars. We report different lithium behaviors corresponding to different evolutionary stages and their signatures: 1) The Spite Plateau shows a slightly positive slope, indicating increasing lithium abundance with increasing metallicity. Most significantly, it appears to extend to lower metallicities as previously suggested, calling into question the reality of the so-called 'meltdown' at low metallicity; 2) We confirm a lithium plateau for lower red giant branch (LRGB) stars with A(Li) $= 1.13$ dex in our sample, while lithium abundance drops rapidly to A(Li)$<0.5$ as stars continue to evolve to higher stage. 3) We identify four Li-rich stars in our sample across different evolutionary stages, showing complex and multiple lithium production mechanisms in VMP/EMP stars. These findings suggest that early Galactic lithium enrichment results from a complex interplay between depletion and production processes.

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A nearly pristine star from the Large Magellanic Cloud

The first stars formed out of pristine gas, causing them to be so massive that none are expected to have survived until today. If their direct descendants were sufficiently low-mass stars, such stars could exist today and would be recognizable by having the lowest metallicities (abundance of elements heavier than helium). We present the independent identification and detailed chemical analysis of the star SDSS J0715-7334, finding ultra-low elemental abundances of both iron and carbon ([Fe/H] = -4.3, [C/Fe] < -0.2) and total metallicity Z < 7.8 x 10^{-7} (log Z/Zsun < -4.3). The star's orbit indicates that it originates from the halo of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Its heavy element abundance pattern can be explained by a primordial supernova with an initial mass of 30 solar masses. This star is over ten times more chemically pristine than the most extreme high-redshift galaxies currently found by the James Webb Space Telescope. It is sufficiently metal-poor that current models of low-mass star formation require dust cooling to explain its existence.

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oMEGACat. X. Shedding light on the disrupted dwarf galaxy of Omega Centauri

Omega Centauri ($ω\,$Cen) is the most massive and chemically complex star cluster in the Milky Way and is widely regarded as the surviving nuclear star cluster of an accreted dwarf galaxy. However, its parent host remains uncertain. Here, we investigate a scenario in which Sequoia, Thamnos, and Gaia--Enceladus (GE) are debris from a single disrupted progenitor, the $ω\,$Dwarf, whose nucleus survives today as $ω\,$Cen. Using APOGEE and GALAH abundances together with Gaia astrometry, we reconstruct the chemical structure across this progenitor adopting orbital energy as a proxy for pre-merger radius. We find that the chemically evolved (younger Al-N-He-rich) population is strongly concentrated toward the inner regions, representing a population formed after/during the merger, while the primordial population represents a dwarf-galaxy-like population, supporting a common dwarf-galaxy origin for its components. The metallicity profile shows an inverted U-shaped gradient similar to those observed in present-day nucleated dwarf galaxies. At the same time, the inner regions ($ω\,$Cen+Thamnos) are more $α$-enhanced than the outskirts, pointing to shorter and more efficient star formation and indicating that the nucleus may have assembled through the merger of inspiraling globular clusters. Neutron-capture abundances reveal a Eu-rich, r-process-dominated outskirts and inner regions enhanced in [Ba/Eu] and [La/Eu], requiring delayed enrichment and more complex chemical evolution. Finally, our analysis shows that Sequoia and Thamnos naturally fit an outside-in stripping sequence around $ω\,$Cen, whereas the connection with GE remains unsure.

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The primordial nature of the C-19 stellar stream

Stellar streams, remnants of compact star systems stretched out by the tidal forces of the Milky Way, offer a unique way to study stellar populations that formed billions of years ago. A particularly unique stream is C-19, the most metal-poor stellar stream known at less than a thousandth of the Sun's metallicity. The nature of C-19 is not yet clear, with properties that resemble both star clusters and ultra faint dwarf galaxies, yet in either case its extremely low metallicity indicates very early star formation, <1 Gyr after the Big Bang. Here, we present the first detailed study on the nature of C-19 based on the chemical abundances of 14 member stars from high-resolution spectroscopy. These reveal that C-19 formed stars in an early, rapid, and prolific star formation event, with mild inhomogeneous mixing of elements produced in massive stars. There is otherwise no evidence for subsequent star formation, multiple stellar populations, nor chemical evolution. Although C-19 is currently disrupted in the Milky Way halo, it offers a rare and complementary window into the details of star formation and chemical evolution in the early universe, ideal for comparisons with current studies of primordial star formation in the high-redshift universe.

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Variations in the Milky Way's Stellar Mass Function at [Fe/H] < -1

We present the first determination of the Galactic stellar mass function (MF) for low-mass stars (0.2-0.5 M_sun) at metallicities [Fe/H] < -1. A sample of ~53,000 stars was selected as metal-poor on the basis of both their halo-like orbits and their spectroscopic [Fe/H] from Gaia DR3 BP/RP (XP) spectra. These metallicity estimates for low-mass stars were enabled by calibrating Gaia XP spectra with stellar parameters from SDSS-V. For -1.5 < [Fe/H] < -1, we find that the MF below 0.5 M_sun exhibits a "bottom-heavy" power-law slope of alpha ~ -1.6. We tentatively find that at even lower metallicities, the MF becomes very bottom-light, with a near-flat power-law slope of alpha ~ 0 that implies a severe deficit of low-mass stars. This metallicity-dependent variation is insensitive to the adopted stellar evolution model. These results show that the Galactic low-mass MF is not universal, with variations in the metal-poor regime. A further calibration of XP metallicities in the regime of M < 0.5 M_sun and [Fe/H] < -1.5 will be essential to verify these tentative low-metallicity trends.

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HR-GO II: chemical abundances of low-$E$ retrograde dynamically-tagged-groups: Revealing Thamnos as a very metal-poor substructure

Milky Way halo substructures identified in dynamical space are known to suffer from contamination from the Milky Way in-situ stars, which makes their accreted origins uncertain. We present detailed chemical abundances of 35 stars belonging to two sets of dynamically tagged groups, Rg8 and Rg9, to investigate their accreted nature. Both groups are composed of stars with low orbital energy and very retrograde orbits. We find that Rg8 and Rg9 are chemically indistinguishable across all elements, from C to Eu, strongly indicating that they belong to the same structure. The iron-abundance distribution of this low-$E$ retrograde group has a prominent peak at [Fe/H] $\approx-2.1$, revealing that its main population is very metal-poor, and a secondary peak at [Fe/H] $\approx-1.5$, very likely due to contamination from Milky Way in-situ stars. These groups also heavily overlap with the Thamnos substructure in dynamical space, and we thus use them to investigate the chemical properties of Thamnos. The dominant, low-metallicity population provides strong evidence for the ex-situ origin of Thamnos, as well as its very metal-poor nature. We do not see any evidence of an $α$ knee in our sample, which is consistent with previous studies. Comparison with the Cetus-Palca stream in the chemical space shows similar abundance distributions, and thus it suggests that the Thamnos progenitor dwarf galaxy had a truncated star formation history due to its early merger with the Milky Way.

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Chemical abundances of seven stars in the GD-1 stream

We present the first detailed chemical abundances for seven GD-1 stream stars from Subaru/HDS spectroscopy. Atmospheric parameters were derived via color calibrations ($T\rm_{eff}$) and iterative spectroscopic analysis. LTE abundances for 14 elements ($α$, odd-Z, iron-peak, n-capture) were measured. Six stars trace the main orbit, one resides in a `blob'. All exhibit tightly clustered metallicities ([Fe/H] = -2.38, {\bf intrinsic dispersion smaller than 0.05 dex, average uncertainty is about 0.13 dex}). While one star shows binary mass transfer signatures, the other six display consistent abundance patterns (dispersions $<$ uncertainties). Their iron-peak elements (Sc, Cr, Mn, Ni) match Milky Way halo stars. In contrast, Y and Sr are systematically lower than halo stars of similar [Fe/H]. Significantly, six stars show consistently enhanced [Eu/Fe] $\sim$ 0.60 ($σ$ = 0.08). A tight Ba-Eu correlation (r = 0.83, p=0.04) exists, with [Ba/Fe] = -0.03 $\pm$ 0.05, indicating a common r-process origin. This extreme chemical homogeneity strongly supports an origin from a single disrupted globular cluster. The lack of light-element anti-correlations may stem from our sample size or the progenitor's low mass.

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Chemical characterisation of small substructures in the local stellar halo

The local stellar halo of the Milky Way is known to contain the debris from accreted dwarf galaxies and globular clusters, in the form of stellar streams and over-densities in the space of orbital properties (e.g. integrals of motion). While several over-densities have been uncovered and characterised dynamically using Gaia data, their nature is not always clear. Especially for a complete understanding of the smaller halo substructures, the kinematic information from Gaia needs to be coupled with chemical information. In this work, we combine Gaia data with targeted high-resolution UVES spectroscopy of five small substructures that were recently discovered in the local halo, namely the ED-2, -3, -4, -5 and -6 (the ED streams). We present the chemical abundances measured from our newly obtained UVES spectra (20 stars) and from archival UVES spectra (nine stars). We compare these with homogeneously derived abundances from archive spectra of 12 Gaia Enceladus (GE) stars. The chemical abundances of all five substructures suggest that they are of accreted origin, except for two stars that present a high [α/Fe] at high [Fe/H] more in line with an in situ origin. All but ED-2 present a significant spread in [Fe/H] suggestive of a dwarf galaxy origin. ED-3 and ED-4 tend to exhibit lower [α/Fe] compared to GE stars. ED-5 and ED-6 are consistent with the GE chemical track and could be high-energy tails of GE that were lost earlier in the accretion process. We present new elemental abundances for 5 ED-2 stars, including more elements for the Gaia BH3 companion star. Our findings are in line with the picture that ED-2 is a disrupted ancient star cluster.

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Th/Eu abundance ratio of red giants in the Kepler Field

The r-process production in the early universe has been well constrained by the extensive studies of metal-poor stars. However, the r-process enrichment in the metal-rich regime is still not well understood. In this study, we examine the abundance ratios of Th and Eu, which represent the actinides and lanthanides, respectively, for a sample of metal-rich disk stars. Our sample covers 89 giant stars in the Kepler field with metallicities $-0.7 \leq \rm{[Fe/H]} \leq 0.4$ and ages from a few hundred Myr to $\sim 14$ Gyr. Age information for this sample is available from stellar seismology, which is essential for studying the radioactive element Th. We derive Th and Eu abundances through $χ^2$ fitting of high-resolution archival spectra ($R \sim 80,000$) observed with the High Dispersion Spectrograph (HDS) at the Subaru Telescope. We create synthetic spectra for individual stars using a 1D LTE spectral synthesis code, Turbospectrum, adopting MARCS model atmospheres. Our study establishes the use of a less extensively studied Th II line at 5989 angstrom, carefully taking into account the blends of other spectral lines to derive the Th abundance. We successfully determine Eu abundance for 89 stars in our sample and Th for 81 stars. For the remaining 8 stars, we estimate the upper limits of Th abundance. After correcting the Th abundance for the decay, we find no correlation between $\rm{[Th/Eu]}$ and $\rm{[Fe/H]}$, which indicates that actinides production with respect to lanthanides does not depend on metallicity. On the other hand, we find a positive correlation of $\rm{[Th/Eu]}$ with age, with a slope of $0.10 \pm 0.04$. This may hint at the possibility that the dominant r-process sources are different between the early and late universe.

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The Pristine survey: XXVII. The extremely metal-poor stream C-19 stretches over more than 100 degrees

The discovery of the most metal-poor stream, C-19, provides us with a fossil record of a stellar structure born very soon after the Big Bang. In this work, we search for new C-19 members over the whole sky by combining two complementary stream-searching algorithms, STREAMFINDER and StarGO,, and utilizing low-metallicity star samples from the Pristine survey as well as Gaia BP/RP spectro-photometric catalogues. We confirm twelve new members, spread over more than 100$^\circ$, using velocity and metallicity information from a set of spectroscopic follow-up programs that targeted a quasi-complete sample of our bright candidates ($G \lesssim 16.0$). From the updated set of stream members, we confirm that the stream is wide, with a stream width of $\sim200$ pc, and dynamically hot, with a derived velocity dispersion of $10.9^{+2.1}_{-1.5}$ km/s. The tension remains between these quantities and a purely baryonic scenario in which the relatively low-mass stream (even updated to a few $10^4M_{\odot}$) stems from a globular cluster progenitor, as suggested by its chemical abundances. Some heating mechanism, such as preheating of the cluster in its own dark matter halo or through interactions with halo sub-structures appears necessary to explain the tension. The impact of binaries on the measured dispersion also remains unknown. Detailed elemental abundances of more stream members as well as multi-epoch radial velocities from spectroscopic observations are therefore crucial to fully understand the nature and past history of the most metal-poor stream of the Milky Way.

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Gaia's brightest very metal-poor (VMP) stars. Metallicity catalogue of a thousand VMP stars from Gaia's radial velocity spectrometer spectra

Context. Gaia DR3 has offered the scientific community a remarkable dataset of approximately one million spectra acquired with the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) in the Calcium II triplet region, that is well-suited to identify very metal-poor (VMP) stars. However, over 40% of these spectra have no released parameters by Gaia's GSP Spec pipeline in the domain of VMP stars, whereas VMP stars are key tracers of early Galactic evolution. Aims. We aim to provide spectroscopic metallicities for VMP stars using Gaia RVS spectra, thereby producing a catalogue of bright VMP stars distributed over the full sky that can serve as the basis to study early chemical evolution throughout the Galaxy. Methods. We select VMP stars using photometric metallicities from the literature and analyse the Gaia RVS spectra to infer spectroscopic metallicities for these stars. Results. The inferred metallicities agree very well with literature high-resolution metallicities with a median systematic offset of 0.1 dex and standard deviation of $\sim$0.15 dex. The purity of this sample in the VMP regime is $\sim$80% with outliers representing a mere $\sim$3%. Conclusions. We make available an all-sky catalogue of $\sim$1500 stars with reliable spectroscopic metallicities down to [Fe/H]$\sim$-4.0, of which $\sim$1000 are VMP stars. More than 75% of these stars have either no metallicity value in the literature to date or are flagged to be unreliable in their literature metallicity estimates. This catalogue of bright (G<13) VMP stars is three times larger than the current sample of well-studied VMP stars in the literature in this magnitude range, making it ideal for high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up and to study the properties of VMP stars in different parts of our Galaxy.

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The Pristine survey: XXV. The very metal-poor Galaxy: Chemodynamics through the follow-up of the Pristine-Gaia synthetic catalogue

The Pristine-\textit{Gaia} synthetic catalogue provides reliable photometric metallicities for $\sim$30 million FGK stars using the Pristine survey model and Gaia XP spectra. We perform the first low-to-medium-resolution spectroscopic follow-up of bright (G<15) and distant (up to 35 kpc) very and extremely metal-poor (V/EMP, [Fe/H]<-2.5) red giant branch stars from this. We use Isaac Newton Telescope/Intermediate Dispersion Spectrograph (INT/IDS) observations centred around the calcium triplet region ideal for V/EMP stars. We find that 76\% of our stars indeed have [Fe/H]<-2.5 with these inferred spectroscopic metallicities and only 3\% are outliers with [Fe/H] > -2.0. We report a success rate of 77\% and 38\% in finding stars with [Fe/H]<-2.5 and -3.0 respectively. This will allow for 10,000-20,000 homogeneously analysed EMP stars using the WEAVE survey follow-up of Pristine EMP candidates. We associate 20\%, 46\%, and 34\% of the stars to be confined to the disc plane, or to have inner and outer halo orbits, respectively. We also associate these V/EMP stars to known accretion events such as Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage (GES), LMS-1/Wukong, Thamnos, Helmi streams, Sagittarius, Sequoia, etc. For the stars that orbit close to the disc plane, we find that the prograde region with low vertical action is overdense with a significance of 4$σ$ as compared to its retrograde counterpart. We also find three new (brightest) members of the most metal-poor stellar stream, C-19, one of which is 50$^\circ$ away from the main body of the stream. Our measured mean metallicity, velocity dispersion, and stream width are consistent with the literature, but our results favour a higher distance ($\sim$21.5 kpc) for the stream. We publish a catalogue (and 1D spectra) of 215 V/EMP stars from this spectroscopic follow-up and showcase the power of chemokinematic analysis of V/EMP end.

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Elemental abundances of 44 very metal-poor stars determined from Subaru/IRD near-infrared spectra

Abundances of five elements, Na, Mg, Al, Si, and Sr, are investigated for 44 very metal-poor stars (-4.0 < [Fe/H] < -1.5) in the Galactic halo system based on an Local Thermodinamic Equilibrium (LTE) analysis of high-resolution near-infrared spectra obtained with the Infrared Doppler instrument (IRD) on the Subaru Telescope. Mg and Si abundances are determined for all 44 stars. The Si abundances are determined from up to 29 lines, which provide reliable abundance ratios compared to previous results from a few optical lines. The Mg and Si of these stars are over-abundant, relative to iron, and are well-explained by chemical-evolution models. No significant scatter is found in the abundance ratios of both elements with respect to iron, except for a few outliers. The small scatter of the abundance ratios of these elements provides constraints on the variations of stellar and supernova's yields at very low metallicity. Al abundances are determined for 27 stars from near-infrared lines (e.g., 1312nm), which are expected to be less affected by non-LTE (NLTE) effects than optical resonance lines. The average of the [Al/Fe] ratios is close to the solar value, and no dependence on metallicity is found over -3.0 < [Fe/H] < -2.0. Na abundances are determined for 12 stars; they exhibit Solar abundance ratios and no dependence on metallicity. The Sr abundances determined from the Sr II triplet are significantly higher than those from the optical resonance lines obtained by previous studies for our sample. This discrepancy shows a clear dependence on temperature and surface gravity, supporting models that predict large NLTE effects on the near-infrared lines for metal-poor red giants.

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Unevolved Li-rich stars at low metallicity: a possible formation pathway through novae

A small fraction of low-mass stars have been found to have anomalously high Li abundances. Although it has been suggested that mixing during the red giant branch phase can lead to Li production, this method of intrinsic Li production cannot explain Li-rich stars that have not yet undergone the first dredge-up. To obtain clues about the origin of such stars, we present a detailed chemical abundance analysis of four unevolved Li-rich stars with $-2.1 < [\mathrm{Fe/H}] < -1.3$ and $2.9<A({\rm Li})<3.6$, $0.7-1.4$ dex higher Li abundance than typical unevolved metal-poor stars. One of the stars, Gaia DR3 6334970766103389824 (D25_6334), was serendipitously found in the stellar stream ED-3, and the other three stars have been reported to have massive ($M\gtrsim 1.3\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$) non-luminous companions. We show that three of the four stars exhibit abundance patterns similar to those of known unevolved Li-rich stars, namely normal abundances in most elements except for Li and Na. These abundance similarities suggest a common origin for the unevolved Li-rich stars and low-mass metal-poor stars with massive compact companions. We also made the first detection of N abundance to unevolved Li-rich stars in D25_6334, and found that it is significantly enhanced ($[\mathrm{N/Fe}]=1.3$). The observed abundance pattern of D25_6334, spanning from C to Si, indicates that its surface has been polluted by an intermediate-mass former companion star or a nova system that involves a massive ONe white dwarf. Using a population synthesis model, we show that the nova scenario can lead to the observed level of Li enhancement and also provide an explanation for Li-rich stars without companions and those with massive compact companions.

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Predicting metallicities and carbon abundances from Gaia XP spectra for (carbon-enhanced) metal-poor stars

Carbon-rich (C-rich) stars can be found at all metallicities and evolutionary stages. They are often the result of mass-transfer from a companion, but some of the most metal-poor C-rich objects are likely carrying the imprint of the metal-free First Stars from birth. In this work, we employ a neural network to predict metallicities and carbon abundances for over 10 million stars with Gaia low-resolution XP spectra, down to [Fe/H] = -3.0 and up to [C/Fe] $\approx$ +2. We identify ~2000 high-confidence bright (G<16) carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars with [Fe/H] < -2.0 and [C/Fe] > +0.7. The majority of our C-rich candidates have [Fe/H] > -2.0 and are expected to be binary mass-transfer products, supported by high barium abundances in GALAH and/or their Gaia RUWE and radial velocity variations. We confirm previous findings of an increase in C-rich stars with decreasing metallicity, adopting a definition of $3σ$ outliers from the [C/Fe] distribution, although our frequency appears to flatten for -3.0 < [Fe/H] < -2.0 at a level of 6-7%. We also find that the fraction of C-rich stars is low among globular cluster stars (connected to their lower binary fraction), and that it decreases for field stars more tightly bound to the Milky Way. We interpret these last results as evidence that disrupted globular clusters contribute more in the inner Galaxy, supporting previous work. Homogeneous samples like these are key to understanding the full population properties of C-rich stars, and this is just the beginning.

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