Carbon abundances of the reference late-type stars from 1D analysis of atomic C I and molecular CH lines

TL;DR

This study develops a detailed NLTE model for atomic carbon in late-type stars, revealing significant corrections for IR lines and providing consistent carbon abundance measurements from atomic and molecular lines across different stellar metallicities.

Contribution

The paper introduces a comprehensive NLTE model atom for C I and applies it to derive consistent carbon abundances in late-type stars, including CEMP stars, improving abundance accuracy.

Findings

NLTE effects are significant for IR C I lines, with corrections up to -0.45 dex.

Consistent carbon abundances from atomic and molecular lines are achieved with NLTE modeling.

The model improves abundance determinations across a range of stellar metallicities.

Abstract

A comprehensive model atom was constructed for C I using the most up-to-date atomic data. We evaluated non-local thermodynamical equilibrium (NLTE) line formation for neutral carbon in classical 1D models representing atmospheres of late-type stars, where carbon abundance varies from solar value down to [C/H] = $-$3. NLTE leads to stronger C I lines compared with their LTE strength and negative NLTE abundance corrections, $\Delta_{\rm NLTE}$. The deviations from LTE are large for the strong lines in the infrared (IR), with $\Delta_{\rm NLTE}$ = $-$0.10 dex to $-$0.45 dex depending on stellar parameters, and they are minor for the weak lines in the visible spectral range, with |$\Delta_{\rm NLTE}| \le$ 0.03 dex. The NLTE abundance corrections were found to be dependent of the carbon abundance in the model. As the first application of the treated model atom, carbon NLTE abundances were determined for the Sun and eight late-type stars with well-determined stellar parameters that cover the $-2.56 \le$ [Fe/H] $\le -1.02$ metallicity range. Consistent abundances from the visible and IR lines were found for the Sun and the most metal-rich star of our sample, when applying a scaling factor of S_H = 0.3 to the Drawinian rates of C+H collisions. Carbon abundances were also derived from the molecular CH lines and, for each star, they agree with that from the atomic C I lines. We present the NLTE abundance corrections for lines of C I in the grid of model atmospheres applicable to the carbon-enhanced (CEMP) stars.