skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Light, alpha, and Fe-peak element abundances in the galactic bulge

Abstract

We present radial velocities and chemical abundances of O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu for a sample of 156 red giant branch stars in two Galactic bulge fields centered near (l, b) = (+5.25,–3.02) and (0,–12). The (+5.25,–3.02) field also includes observations of the bulge globular cluster NGC 6553. The results are based on high-resolution (R ∼ 20,000), high signal-to-noise ration (S/N ≳ 70) FLAMES-GIRAFFE spectra obtained through the European Southern Observatory archive. However, we only selected a subset of the original observations that included spectra with both high S/N and that did not show strong TiO absorption bands. This work extends previous analyses of this data set beyond Fe and the α-elements Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti. While we find reasonable agreement with past work, the data presented here indicate that the bulge may exhibit a different chemical composition than the local thick disk, especially at [Fe/H] ≳ –0.5. In particular, the bulge [α/Fe] ratios may remain enhanced to a slightly higher [Fe/H] than the thick disk, and the Fe-peak elements Co, Ni, and Cu appear enhanced compared to the disk. There is also some evidence that the [Na/Fe] (but not [Al/Fe]) trendsmore » between the bulge and local disk may be different at low and high metallicity. We also find that the velocity dispersion decreases as a function of increasing [Fe/H] for both fields, and do not detect any significant cold, high-velocity populations. A comparison with chemical enrichment models indicates that a significant fraction of hypernovae may be required to explain the bulge abundance trends, and that initial mass functions that are steep, top-heavy (and do not include strong outflow), or truncated to avoid including contributions from stars >40 M {sub ☉} are ruled out, in particular because of disagreement with the Fe-peak abundance data. For most elements, the NGC 6553 stars exhibit abundance trends nearly identical to comparable metallicity bulge field stars. However, the star-to-star scatter and mean [Na/Fe] ratios appear higher in the cluster, perhaps indicating additional self-enrichment.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS-15, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, 430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547 (United States)
  3. Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB (United Kingdom)
  4. Leibniz-Institute für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Ander Sternwarte 16, D-14482, Potsdam (Germany)
  5. Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Landessternwarte, Königstuhl 12, Heidelberg (Germany)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22342247
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 148; Journal Issue: 4; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 1538-3881
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ABSORPTION; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; DISPERSIONS; ELEMENT ABUNDANCE; FLAMES; GALAXIES; MASS; METALLICITY; NOISE; RADIAL VELOCITY; RESOLUTION; SPECTRA; STARS; TITANIUM OXIDES; VISIBLE RADIATION

Citation Formats

Johnson, Christian I., Rich, R. Michael, Kobayashi, Chiaki, Kunder, Andrea, and Koch, Andreas. Light, alpha, and Fe-peak element abundances in the galactic bulge. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/148/4/67.
Johnson, Christian I., Rich, R. Michael, Kobayashi, Chiaki, Kunder, Andrea, & Koch, Andreas. Light, alpha, and Fe-peak element abundances in the galactic bulge. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/148/4/67
Johnson, Christian I., Rich, R. Michael, Kobayashi, Chiaki, Kunder, Andrea, and Koch, Andreas. 2014. "Light, alpha, and Fe-peak element abundances in the galactic bulge". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/148/4/67.
@article{osti_22342247,
title = {Light, alpha, and Fe-peak element abundances in the galactic bulge},
author = {Johnson, Christian I. and Rich, R. Michael and Kobayashi, Chiaki and Kunder, Andrea and Koch, Andreas},
abstractNote = {We present radial velocities and chemical abundances of O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu for a sample of 156 red giant branch stars in two Galactic bulge fields centered near (l, b) = (+5.25,–3.02) and (0,–12). The (+5.25,–3.02) field also includes observations of the bulge globular cluster NGC 6553. The results are based on high-resolution (R ∼ 20,000), high signal-to-noise ration (S/N ≳ 70) FLAMES-GIRAFFE spectra obtained through the European Southern Observatory archive. However, we only selected a subset of the original observations that included spectra with both high S/N and that did not show strong TiO absorption bands. This work extends previous analyses of this data set beyond Fe and the α-elements Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti. While we find reasonable agreement with past work, the data presented here indicate that the bulge may exhibit a different chemical composition than the local thick disk, especially at [Fe/H] ≳ –0.5. In particular, the bulge [α/Fe] ratios may remain enhanced to a slightly higher [Fe/H] than the thick disk, and the Fe-peak elements Co, Ni, and Cu appear enhanced compared to the disk. There is also some evidence that the [Na/Fe] (but not [Al/Fe]) trends between the bulge and local disk may be different at low and high metallicity. We also find that the velocity dispersion decreases as a function of increasing [Fe/H] for both fields, and do not detect any significant cold, high-velocity populations. A comparison with chemical enrichment models indicates that a significant fraction of hypernovae may be required to explain the bulge abundance trends, and that initial mass functions that are steep, top-heavy (and do not include strong outflow), or truncated to avoid including contributions from stars >40 M {sub ☉} are ruled out, in particular because of disagreement with the Fe-peak abundance data. For most elements, the NGC 6553 stars exhibit abundance trends nearly identical to comparable metallicity bulge field stars. However, the star-to-star scatter and mean [Na/Fe] ratios appear higher in the cluster, perhaps indicating additional self-enrichment.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-6256/148/4/67},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22342247}, journal = {Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)},
issn = {1538-3881},
number = 4,
volume = 148,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}