No Arabic abstract
The study of massive stars in different metallicity environments is a central topic of current stellar research. The spectral analysis of massive stars requires adequate model atmospheres. The computation of such models is difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, spectral analyses are greatly facilitated if they can refer to existing grids of models. Here we provide grids of model atmospheres for OB-type stars at metallicities corresponding to the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, as well as to solar metallicity. In total, the grids comprise 785 individual models. The models were calculated using the state-of-the-art Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) model atmosphere code. The parameter domain of the grids was set up using stellar evolution tracks. For all these models, we provide normalized and flux-calibrated spectra, spectral energy distributions, feedback parameters such as ionizing photons, Zanstra temperatures, and photometric magnitudes. The atmospheric structures (the density and temperature stratification) are available as well. All these data are publicly accessible through the PoWR website.
The aim of this study is to analyse and determine elemental abundances for a large sample of distant B stars in the outer Galactic disk in order to constrain the chemical distribution of the Galactic disk and models of chemical evolution of the Galaxy. Here, we present preliminary results on a few stars along with the adopted methodology based on securing simultaneous O and Si ionization equilibria with consistent NLTE model atmospheres.
Aluminium plays a key role in studies of the chemical enrichment of the Galaxy and of globular clusters. However, strong deviations from LTE (non-LTE) are known to significantly affect the inferred abundances in giant and metal-poor stars. We present NLTE modeling of aluminium using recent and accurate atomic data, in particular utilizing new transition rates for collisions with hydrogen atoms, without the need for any astrophysically calibrated parameters. For the first time, we perform 3D NLTE modeling of aluminium lines in the solar spectrum. We also compute and make available extensive grids of abundance corrections for lines in the optical and near-infrared using one-dimensional model atmospheres, and apply grids of precomputed departure coefficients to direct line synthesis for a set of benchmark stars with accurately known stellar parameters. Our 3D NLTE modeling of the solar spectrum reproduces observed center-to-limb variations in the solar spectrum of the 7835 {AA} line as well as the mid-infrared photospheric emission line at 12.33 micron. We infer a 3D NLTE solar photospheric abundance of A(Al) = 6.43+-0.03, in exact agreement with the meteoritic abundance. We find that abundance corrections vary rapidly with stellar parameters; for the 3961 {AA} resonance line, corrections are positive and may be as large as +1 dex, while corrections for subordinate lines generally have positive sign for warm stars but negative for cool stars. Our modeling reproduces the observed line profiles of benchmark K-giants, and we find abundance corrections as large as -0.3 dex for Arcturus. Our analyses of four metal-poor benchmark stars yield consistent abundances between the 3961 {AA} resonance line and lines in the UV, optical and near-infrared regions. Finally, we discuss implications for the galactic chemical evolution of aluminium.
Older GCE models predict [K/Fe] ratios as much as 1 dex lower than those inferred from stellar observations. Abundances of potassium are mainly based on analyses of the 7698 $AA$ resonance line, and the discrepancy between models and observations is in part caused by the LTE assumption. We study the statistical equilibrium of KI, focusing on the non-LTE effects on the $7698 AA$ line. We aim to determine how non-LTE abundances of K can improve the analysis of its chemical evolution, and help to constrain the yields of models. We construct a model atom that employs the most up-to-date data. In particular, we calculate and present inelastic e+K collisional excitation cross-sections from the convergent close-coupling and the $B$-Spline $R$-matrix methods, and H+K collisions from the two-electron model. We constructed a fine grid of non-LTE abundance corrections that span $4000<teff / rm{K}<8000$, $0.50<lgg<5.00$, $-5.00<feh<+0.50$, and applied the corrections to abundances from the literature. In concordance with previous studies, we find severe non-LTE effects in the $7698 AA$ line, which is stronger in non-LTE with abundance corrections that can reach $sim-0.7,dex$. We explore the effects of atmospheric inhomogeneity by computing a full 3D non-LTE stellar spectrum of KI for a test star. We find that 3D is necessary to predict a correct shape of the resonance 7698 $AA$ line, but the line strength is similar to that found in 1D non-LTE. Our non-LTE abundance corrections reduce the scatter and change the cosmic trends of literature K abundances. In the regime [Fe/H]$lesssim-1.0$ the non-LTE abundances show a good agreement with the GCE model with yields from rotating massive stars. The reduced scatter of the non-LTE corrected abundances of a sample of solar twins shows that line-by-line differential analysis techniques cannot fully compensate for systematic modelling errors.
We test our knowledge of the atomic opacity in the solar UV spectrum. Using the atomic data compiled in Paper I from modern, publicly available, databases, we perform calculations that are confronted with space-based observations of the Sun. At wavelengths longer than about 260 nm, LTE modeling can reproduce quite closely the observed fluxes; uncertainties in the atomic line data account fully for the differences between calculated and observed fluxes. At shorter wavelengths, departures from LTE appear to be important, as our LTE and restricted NLTE calculations differ. Analysis of visible-near infrared Na I and O I lines, two species that produce a negligible absorption in the UV, shows that observed departures from LTE for theses species can be reproduced very accurately with restricted (fixed atmospheric structure) NLTE calculations.
Extreme helium stars (EHe stars) are hydrogen-deficient supergiants of spectral type A and B. They are believed to result from mergers in double degenerate systems. In this paper we present a detailed quantitative non-LTE spectral analysis for BD+10$^circ$2179, a prototype of this rare class of stars, using UVES and FEROS spectra covering the range from $sim$3100 to 10 000 {AA}. Atmosphere model computations were improved in two ways. First, since the UV metal line blanketing has a strong impact on the temperature-density stratification, we used the Atlas12 code. Additionally, We tested Atlas12 against the benchmark code Sterne3, and found only small differences in the temperature and density stratifications, and good agreement with the spectral energy distributions. Second, 12 chemical species were treated in non-LTE. Pronounced non-LTE effects occur in individual spectral lines but, for the majority, the effects are moderate to small. The spectroscopic parameters give $T_mathrm{eff}$ = 17 300$pm$300 K and $log g$ = 2.80$pm$0.10, and an evolutionary mass of 0.55$pm$0.05 $M_odot$. The star is thus slightly hotter, more compact and less massive than found in previous studies. The kinematic properties imply a thick-disk membership, which is consistent with the metallicity $[$Fe/H$]approx-1$ and $alpha$-enhancement. The refined light-element abundances are consistent with the white dwarf merger scenario. We further discuss the observed helium spectrum in an appendix, detecting dipole-allowed transitions from about 150 multiplets plus the most comprehensive set of known/predicted isolated forbidden components to date. Moreover, a so far unreported series of pronounced forbidden He I components is detected in the optical-UV.