No Arabic abstract
Molecular absorption lines of OH (99 lines) and CH (105 lines) are measured for the carbon-enhanced metal-poor star BD+44 493 with [Fe/H]=-3.8. The abundances of oxygen and carbon determined from individual lines based on an 1D-LTE analysis exhibit significant dependence on excitation potentials of the lines; d log e/d chi ~ -0.15 - -0.2 dex/eV, where e and chi are elemental abundances from individual spectral lines and their excitation potentials, respectively. The dependence is not explained by the uncertainties of stellar parameters, but suggests that the atmosphere of this object possesses a cool layer that is not reproduced by the 1D model atmosphere. This result agrees with the predictions by 3D model calculations. Although absorption lines of neutral iron exhibit similar trend, it is much weaker than found in molecular lines and that predicted by 3D LTE models.
We present detailed chemical abundances for the bright carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) star BD+44 493, previously reported on by Ito et al. Our measurements confirm that BD+44 493 is an extremely metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-3.8) subgiant star with excesses of carbon and oxygen. No significant excesses are found for nitrogen and neutron-capture elements (the latter of which place it in the CEMP-no class of stars). Other elements that we measure exhibit abundance patterns that are typical for non-CEMP extremely metal-poor stars. No evidence for variations of radial velocity have been found for this star. These results strongly suggest that the carbon enhancement in BD+44 493 is unlikely to have been produced by a companion asymptotic giant-branch star and transferred to the presently observed star, nor by pollution of its natal molecular cloud by rapidly-rotating, massive, mega metal-poor ([Fe/H] < -6.0) stars. A more likely possibility is that this star formed from gas polluted by the elements produced in a faint supernova, which underwent mixing and fallback, and only ejected small amounts of elements of metals beyond the lighter elements. The Li abundance of BD+44 493 (A(Li)=log(Li/H)+12=1.0) is lower than the Spite plateau value, as found in other metal-poor subgiants. The upper limit on Be abundance (A(Be)=log(Be/H)+12<-1.8) is as low as those found for stars with similarly extremely-low metallicity, indicating that the progenitors of carbon- (and oxygen-) enhanced stars are not significant sources of Be, or that Be is depleted in metal-poor subgiants with effective temperatures of ~5400K.
We present an elemental-abundance analysis, in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectral range, for the extremely metal-poor star BD+44 493, a 9th magnitude sub-giant with [Fe/H] = -3.8 and enhanced carbon, based on data acquired with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. This star is the brightest example of a class of objects that, unlike the great majority of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars, does not exhibit over-abundances of heavy neutron-capture elements (CEMP-no). In this paper, we validate the abundance determinations for a number of species that were previously studied in the optical region, and obtain strong upper limits for beryllium and boron, as well as for neutron-capture elements from zirconium to platinum, many of which are not accessible from ground-based spectra. The boron upper limit we obtain for BD+44 493, logeps(B) < -0.70, the first such measurement for a CEMP star, is the lowest yet found for very and extremely metal-poor stars. In addition, we obtain even lower upper limits on the abundances of beryllium, logeps(Be) < -2.3, and lead, logeps(Pb) < -0.23 ([Pb/Fe] < +1.90), than those reported by previous analyses in the optical range. Taken together with the previously measured low abundance of lithium, the very low upper limits on Be and B suggest that BD+44 493 was formed at a very early time, and that it could well be a bona-fide second-generation star. Finally, the Pb upper limit strengthens the argument for non-s-process production of the heavy-element abundance patterns in CEMP-no stars.
The first galaxies contain stars born out of gas with little or no metals. The lack of metals is expected to inhibit efficient gas cooling and star formation but this effect has yet to be observed in galaxies with oxygen abundance relative to hydrogen below a tenth of that of the Sun. Extremely metal poor nearby galaxies may be our best local laboratories for studying in detail the conditions that prevailed in low metallicity galaxies at early epochs. Carbon Monoxide (CO) emission is unreliable as tracers of gas at low metallicities, and while dust has been used to trace gas in low-metallicity galaxies, low-spatial resolution in the far-infrared has typically led to large uncertainties. Here we report spatially-resolved infrared observations of two galaxies with oxygen abundances below 10 per cent solar, and show that stars form very inefficiently in seven star-forming clumps of these galaxies. The star formation efficiencies are more than ten times lower than found in normal, metal rich galaxies today, suggesting that star formation may have been very inefficient in the early Universe.
Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars are an integral piece in the puzzle that is the early Universe, and although anomolous subclasses of EMP stars such as carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars are well-studied, they make up less than half of all EMP stars with [Fe/H] $sim -3.0$. The amount of carbon depletion occurring on the red giant branch (carbon offset) is used to determine the evolutionary status of EMP stars, and this offset will differ between CEMP and normal EMP stars. The depletion mechanism employed in stellar models (from which carbon offfsets are derived) is very important, however the only widely available carbon offsets in the literature are derived from stellar models using a thermohaline mixing mechanism that cannot simultaneously match carbon and lithium abundances to observations for a single diffusion coeffcient. Our stellar evolution models utilise a modified thermohaline mixing model that can match carbon and lithium in the metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6397. We compare our models to the bulk of the EMP star sample at [Fe/H] $= -3$ and show that our modified models follow the trend of the observations and deplete less carbon compared to the standard thermohaline mixing theory. We conclude that stellar models that employ the standard thermohaline mixing formalism overestimate carbon offsets and hence CEMP star frequencies, particularly at metallicities where carbon-normal stars dominate the EMP star population.
We have searched the WISE first data release for widely separated (<10,000AU) late T dwarf companions to Hipparcos and Gliese stars. We have discovered a new binary system containing a K-band suppressed T8p dwarf WISEP J1423+0116 and the mildly metal poor ([Fe/H]=-0.38+-0.06) primary BD+01 2920 (Hip 70319), a G1 dwarf at a distance of 17.2pc. This new benchmark has Teff=680+-55K and a mass of 20-50 Mjup. Its spectral properties are well modelled except for known discrepancies in the Y and K bands. Based on the well determined metallicity of its companion, the properties of BD+01 2920B imply that the currently known T dwarfs are dominated by young low-mass objects. We also present an accurate proper motion for the T8.5 dwarf WISEP J075003.84+272544.8.