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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: aoki.wako@nao.ac.jp
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
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Abstract

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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 

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