Metal-Poor Stars Observed with the Southern African Large Telescope

TL;DR

This study analyzes high-resolution spectra of 50 bright metal-poor stars from SALT, revealing diverse abundance patterns, including carbon enhancement and r-process element enrichment, with several newly discovered stars and implications for stellar enrichment history.

Contribution

First large-scale high-resolution spectral survey of bright metal-poor stars with detailed abundance analysis and discovery of new r-process-enhanced stars.

Findings

30% of stars are carbon-enhanced ([C/Fe] >+0.70)

52% of stars show r-process element enhancement

Several newly discovered r-II and r-I stars

Abstract

We present the first release of a large-scale study of relatively bright (V < 13.5) metal-poor stars observed with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), based on high-resolution spectra of 50 stars with a resolving power of R ~ 40,000 and S/N ~ 20 per pixel at 4300 Angstrom. The elemental abundances of C, Sr, Ba, and Eu are reported, as well as several alpha-elements (Mg, Ca, Sc, Ti, V) and iron-peak elements (Mn, Co, Ni, Zn). We find a diverse array of abundance patterns, including several consistent with the signatures of carbon-enhanced metal-poor CEMP-i and CEMP-r stars. We find that 15 of 50 (30%) are carbon enhanced (with [C/Fe] >+ 0.70), and that a large fraction (26 of 50, 52%) are enhanced in r-process elements, among the r-process-enhanced stars, five are strongly enhanced r-II ([Eu/Fe] >+ 1.0) stars (two of which are newly discovered) and 21 are newly discovered moderately enhanced r-I (+0.3 <= [Eu/Fe] <=+ 1..0) stars. There are eight stars in our sample that, on the basis of their abundances and kinematics, are possible members of the metal-weak thick-disk population. We also compare our measured abundances to progenitor-enrichment models, and find that the abundance patterns for the majority of our stars can be attributed to a single (rather than multiple) enrichment event.