Comprehensive abundance analysis of red giants in the open clusters NGC 1342, 1662, 1912, 2354 and 2447

TL;DR

This study provides the first detailed chemical abundance analysis of red giants in five open clusters, comparing their elemental compositions with field stars to understand stellar and galactic chemical evolution.

Contribution

It offers the first chemical abundance measurements for four of the five clusters and establishes a homogeneous scale for comparing cluster and field star compositions.

Findings

Young open cluster giants show mild heavy element enrichment compared to field stars.

The youngest stellar generations in clusters may be underrepresented in the solar neighborhood.

Homogeneous abundance data enables better comparison of cluster and field star chemical evolution.

Abstract

We have observed high-dispersion echelle spectra of red giant members in the five open clusters NGC 1342, NGC 1662, NGC 1912, NGC 2354 and NGC 2447 and determined their radial velocities and chemical compositions. These are the first chemical abundance measurements for all but NGC 2447. We combined our clusters from this and previous papers with a sample drawn from the literature for which we remeasured the chemical abundances to establish a common abundance scale. With this homogeneous sample of open clusters, we study the relative elemental abundances of stars in open clusters in comparison with field stars as a function of age and metallicity. We find a range of mild enrichment of heavy (Ba-Eu) elements in young open cluster giants over field stars of the same metallicity. Our analysis succinct that the youngest stellar generations in cluster might be under-represented by the solar neighbourhood field stars.