Chemical Abundances for 855 Giants in the Globular Cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139)

TL;DR

This study provides detailed elemental abundances for 855 giant stars in Omega Centauri, revealing complex chemical patterns, multiple stellar populations, and insights into the cluster's formation and enrichment history.

Contribution

It offers the largest spectroscopic dataset for Omega Centauri's giants, highlighting metallicity-dependent yields, multiple enrichment processes, and spatial distribution of chemically distinct populations.

Findings

Heavy alpha elements are enhanced and show metallicity-dependent patterns.

Light elements exhibit large dispersions and anticorrelations, indicating multiple enrichment sources.

O-poor stars are centrally concentrated and may share origins with blue main sequence stars.

Abstract

We present elemental abundances for 855 red giant branch (RGB) stars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri (w Cen) from spectra obtained with the Blanco 4m telescope and Hydra multifiber spectrograph. The sample includes nearly all RGB stars brighter than V=13.5, and span's w Cen's full metallicity range. The heavy alpha elements (Si, Ca, and Ti) are generally enhanced by ~+0.3 dex, and exhibit a metallicity dependent morphology that may be attributed to mass and metallicity dependent Type II supernova (SN) yields. The heavy alpha and Fe-peak abundances suggest minimal contributions from Type Ia SNe. The light elements (O, Na, and Al) exhibit >0.5 dex abundance dispersions at all metallicities, and a majority of stars with [Fe/H]>-1.6 have [O/Fe], [Na/Fe], and [Al/Fe] abundances similar to those in monometallic globular clusters, as well as O-Na, O-Al anticorrelations and the Na-Al correlation in all but the most metal-rich stars. A combination of pollution from intermediate mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and in situ mixing may explain the light element abundance patterns. A large fraction (27%) of w Cen stars are O-poor ([O/Fe]<0) and are preferentially located within 5-10' of the cluster center. The O-poor giants are spatially similar, located in the same metallicity range, and are present in nearly equal proportions to blue main sequence stars. This suggests the O-poor giants and blue main sequence stars may share a common origin. [La/Fe] increases sharply at [Fe/H]>-1.6, and the [La/Eu] ratios indicate the increase is due to almost pure s-process production.