Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:52:10.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Very Low-Mass Stars with Extremely Low Metallicity in the Milky Way's Halo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2016

Wako Aoki
Affiliation:
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan email: [email protected]
Timothy C. Beers
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States
Takuma Suda
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Satoshi Honda
Affiliation:
University of Hyogo, Sayo, Hyogo, Japan
Young Sun Lee
Affiliation:
Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Large surveys and follow-up spectroscopic studies in the past few decades have been providing chemical abundance data for a growing number of very metal-poor ([Fe/H] <−2) stars. Most of them are red giants or main-sequence turn-off stars having masses near 0.8 solar masses. Lower mass stars with extremely low metallicity ([Fe/H] <−3) are yet to be explored. Our high-resolution spectroscopic study for very metal-poor stars found with SDSS has identified four cool main-sequence stars with [Fe/H] <−2.5 among 137 objects (Aoki et al. 2013). The effective temperatures of these stars are 4500–5000 K, corresponding to a mass of around 0.5 solar masses. Our standard analysis of the high-resolution spectra based on 1D-LTE model atmospheres has obtained self-consistent chemical abundances for these objects, assuming small values of micro-turbulent velocities compared with giants and turn-off stars. The low temperature of the atmospheres of these objects enables us to measure their detailed chemical abundances. Interestingly, two of the four stars have extreme chemical-abundance patterns: one has the largest excesses of heavy neutron-capture elements associated with the r-process abundance pattern known to date (Aoki et al. 2010), and the other exhibits low abundances of the α-elements and odd-Z elements, suggested to be signatures of the yields of very massive stars (> 100 solar masses; Aoki et al. 2014). Although the sample size is still small, these results indicate the potential of very low-mass stars as probes to study the early stages of the Milky Way's halo formation.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

References

Aoki, W., Beers, T. C., Honda, S., & Carollo, D. 2010, ApJL, 723, L201Google Scholar
Aoki, W., Beers, T. C., Lee, Y. S., et al. 2013, AJ, 145, 13Google Scholar
Aoki, W., Tominaga, N., Beers, T. C., Honda, S., & Lee, Y. S. 2014, Science, 345, 912CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frebel, A., & Norris, J. E. 2015, ARAA, in press, arXiv:1501.06921Google Scholar
Ishimaru, Y., Wanajo, S., & Prantzos, N. 2015, ApJL, 804, L35Google Scholar
Kim, Y.-C., Demarque, P., Yi, S. K., & Alexander, D. R. 2002, ApJS, 143, 499Google Scholar
Lee, Y. S., Beers, T. C., Sivarani, T., et al. 2008, AJ, 136, 2022Google Scholar
Ohkubo, T., Umeda, H., Maeda, K., et al. 2006, ApJ, 645, 1352Google Scholar
Suda, T., Katsuta, Y., Yamada, S., et al. 2008, PASJ, 60, 1159Google Scholar
Wehmeyer, B., Pignatari, M., & Thielemann, F.-K. 2015, MNRAS, 452, 1970Google Scholar
Yong, D., & Lambert, D. L. 2003a, PASP, 115, 796CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yong, D., Lambert, D. L., & Ivans, I. I. 2003b, ApJ, 599, 1357Google Scholar
York, D. G., Adelman, J., Anderson, J. E., et al. 2000, AJ, 120 1579Google Scholar