Detailed Abundances for 28 Metal-poor Stars: Stellar Relics in the Milky Way

TL;DR

This study analyzes detailed chemical abundances of 28 metal-poor stars in the Milky Way, revealing insights into early nucleosynthesis, neutron-capture processes, and supernova progenitors at extremely low metallicities.

Contribution

First detailed abundance measurements for 13 stars with [Fe/H] < -2.6, including nine with [Fe/H] < -3.0, and identification of a new r-process-enhanced star with actinide boost.

Findings

Most metal-poor star shows typical abundance pattern for its metallicity.

Detected neutron-capture activity at very low metallicities, mainly from the main r-process.

Supernova models with progenitors of 10-20 M☉ best match observed abundances.

Abstract

We present the results of an abundance analysis for a sample of stars with $-4<$[Fe/H]$<-2$. The data were obtained with the HIRES spectrograph at Keck Observatory. The set includes 28 stars, with effective temperature ranging from 4800 to 6600 K. For 13 stars with [Fe/H]$<-2.6$, including nine with [Fe/H]$<-3.0$ and one with [Fe/H]$=-4.0$, these are the first reported detailed abundances. For the most metal-poor star in our sample, CS 30336-049, we measure an abundance pattern that is very similar to stars in the range [Fe/H]$\sim-3.5$, including a normal C+N abundance. We also find that it has very low but measurable Sr and Ba, indicating some neutron-capture activity even at this low of a metallicity. We explore this issue further by examining other very neutron-capture-deficient stars, and find that at the lowest levels, [Ba/Sr] exhibits the ratio of the main r-process. We also report on a new r-process-enhanced star, CS 31078-018. This star has [Fe/H]$=-2.85$, [Eu/Fe]$=1.23$, and [Ba/Eu]$=-0.51$. CS 31078-018 exhibits an ``actinide boost'', i.e. much higher [Th/Eu] than expected and at a similar level to CS 31082-001. Our spectra allow us to further constrain the abundance scatter at low metallicities, which we then use to fit to the zero-metallicity Type II supernova yields of Heger & Woosley (2008). We find that supernovae with progenitor masses between 10 and 20 M$_{\odot}$ provide the best matches to our abundances.