Spectroscopic determination of C, N, and O abundances of solar-analog stars based on the lines of hydride molecules

TL;DR

This study measures C, N, and O abundances in 118 solar-analog stars using molecular lines, revealing trends with metallicity and potential links to planetary formation and stellar evolution.

Contribution

It presents a spectroscopic method using hydride molecules to determine C, N, and O abundances in solar-analog stars, providing new insights into their chemical behaviors.

Findings

[C/Fe] marginally increases with decreasing [Fe/H]

[N/Fe] tends to decrease towards lower [Fe/H]

[O/Fe] systematically increases as [Fe/H] decreases

Abstract

Photospheric C, N, and O abundances of 118 solar-analog stars were determined by applying the synthetic-fitting analysis to their spectra in the blue or near-UV region comprising lines of CH, NH, and OH molecules, with an aim of clarifying the behaviors of these abundances in comparison with [Fe/H]. It turned out that, in the range of -0.6<[Fe/H]<+0.3, [C/Fe] shows a marginally increasing tendency with decreasing [Fe/H] with a slight upturn around [Fe/H]~0, [N/Fe] tends to somewhat decrease towards lower [Fe/H], and [O/Fe] systematically increases (and thus [C/O] decreases) with a decrease in [Fe/H]. While these results are qualitatively consistent with previous determinations mostly based on atomic lines, the distribution centers of these [C/Fe], [N/Fe], and [O/Fe] at the near-solar metallicity are slightly negative by several hundredths dex, which is interpreted as due to unusual solar abundances possibly related to the planetary formation of our solar system. However, clear anomalies are not observed in the [C,N,O/Fe] ratios of planet-host stars. Three out of four very Be-deficient stars were found to show anomalous [C/Fe] or [N/Fe] which may be due to mass transfer from the evolved companion, though its relation to Be depletion mechanism is still unclear.