Detailed abundances in a sample of very metal poor stars

TL;DR

This study analyzes the chemical compositions of five extremely metal-poor stars, discovering a new ultra metal-poor star and providing insights into early Galactic nucleosynthesis and stellar evolution.

Contribution

First detailed chemical abundance analysis of a small sample of EMP stars, including the discovery of a new UMP star with [Fe/H] = -4.25.

Findings

Confirmed the stars are very metal poor.

Discovered a new ultra metal-poor star with [Fe/H] = -4.25.

Found some stars with lower lithium than the Spite plateau.

Abstract

Unevolved metal poor stars are the witness of the early evolution of the Galaxy. The determination of their detailed chemical composition is an important tool to understand the chemical history of our Galaxy. The study of their chemical composition can also be used to constrain the nucleosynthesis of the first generation of supernovae that enriched the interstellar medium. The aim is to observe a sample of extremely metal poor stars (EMP stars) candidates selected from SDSS DR12 release and determine their chemical composition. We obtained high resolution spectra of a sample of five stars using HDS on Subaru telescope and used standard 1D models to compute the abundances. The stars we analysed have a metallicity [Fe/H] between -3.50 dex and -4.25 dex . We confirm that the five metal poor candidates selected from low resolution spectra are very metal poor. We present, the discovery of a new ultra metal-poor star (UMP star) with a metallicity of [Fe/H]= -4.25 dex (SDSS~J1050032.34$-$241009.7). We measured in this star an upper limit of lithium ( log(Li/H) <= 2.0. We found that the 4 most metal poor stars of our sample have a lower lithium abundance than the Spite plateau lithium value. We obtain upper limits for carbon in the sample of stars. None of them belong to the high carbon band. We measured abundances of Mg and Ca in most of the stars and found three new alpha-poor stars.