The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: Evolution of surface N abundances and effective temperature scales in the Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds

TL;DR

This study analyzes high-resolution spectra of 61 B-type stars across the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds to determine their atmospheric parameters and surface abundances, revealing metallicity and luminosity effects on temperature scales.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive dataset of B-type star abundances and temperature scales across different galaxies, highlighting the impact of metallicity and luminosity on stellar parameters.

Findings

Effective temperature scales vary with luminosity and metallicity.

Metallicity influences surface nitrogen abundances.

Temperature differences observed between galaxies and stellar classes.

Abstract

We present an analysis of high resolution VLT-FLAMES spectra of 61 B-type stars with relatively narrow-lined spectra located in 4 fields centered on the Milky Way clusters; NGC3293 & NGC4755 and the Large and Small Magellanic cloud clusters; NGC2004 and NGC330. For each object a quantitative analysis was carried out using the non-LTE model atmosphere code TLUSTY; resulting in the determination of their atmospheric parameters and photospheric abundances of the dominant metal species (C, N, O, Mg, Si, Fe). The results are discussed in relation to our earlier work on 3 younger clusters in these galaxies; NGC6611, N11 and NGC346 paying particular attention to the nitrogen abundances which are an important probe of the role of rotation in the evolution of stars. This work along with that of the younger clusters provides a consistent dataset of abundances and atmospheric parameters for over 100 B-type stars in the three galaxies. We provide effective temperature scales for B-type dwarfs in all three galaxies and for giants and supergiants in the SMC and LMC. In each galaxy a dependence on luminosity is found between the three classes with the unevolved dwarf objects having significantly higher effective temperatures. A metallicity dependence is present between the SMC and Galactic dwarf objects, and whilst the LMC stars are only slightly cooler than the SMC stars, they are significantly hotter than their Galactic counterparts.