The formation of the Milky Way halo and its dwarf satellites: a NLTE-1D abundance analysis. IV. Segue 1, Triangulum II, and Coma Berenices UFDs

TL;DR

This study provides detailed NLTE abundance analyses of multiple chemical elements in stars from ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, revealing signatures of the first stars and differences from classical dwarf galaxies and the Milky Way halo.

Contribution

First NLTE abundance measurements of several elements in stars of UFDs, offering new insights into early galactic chemical evolution and nucleosynthesis signatures.

Findings

Low [Na/Mg] ratios indicate signatures of first stars.

Lower [Sr/Ba] ratios in UFDs compared to classical dwarfs and halo.

Possible Sr production in metal-poor binaries at early galaxy formation stages.

Abstract

We present atmospheric parameters and abundances for chemical elements from carbon to barium in metal-poor stars in Segue 1 (seven stars), Coma Berenices (three stars), and Triangulum II (one star) ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs). The effective temperatures rely on new photometric observations in the visible and infra-red bands, obtained with the 2.5 m telescope of the SAI MSU Caucasian observatory. Abundances of up to fourteen chemical elements were derived under the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) line formation, and LTE abundances were obtained for up to five more elements. For the first time we present abundance of oxygen in Seg 1 S1 and S4, silicon in ComaBer S2 and Tri II S40, potassium in Seg 1 S1-S6 and ComaBer S1-S3, and barium in Seg 1 S7. Three stars in Segue 1, two stars in Coma Berenices, and Triangulum II star have very low [Na/Mg] of -1.08 to -1.67 dex, which is usually attributed in the literature to an odd-even effect produced by nucleosynthesis in massive metal-free stars. We interpret this chemical property as a footprint of first stars, which is not blurred due to a small number of nucleosynthesis events that contributed to chemical abundance patterns of the sample stars. Our NLTE abundances of Sr and Ba in Coma Berenices, Segue 1, and Triangulum II report on lower [Sr/Ba] abundance ratio in the UFDs compared to that in classical dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the Milky Way halo. However, in UFDs, just as in massive galaxies, [Sr/Ba] is not constant and it can be higher than the pure r-process ratio. We suggest a hypothesis of Sr production in metal-poor binaries at the earliest epoch of galactic evolution.