Zirconium, barium, lanthanum, and europium abundances in open clusters
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Jacobson-2013-ZIRCONIUM, BARIUM, L.pdf
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1.04 MB
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Author(s)
Friel, Eileen D.
Jacobson, Heather
Date Issued
March 2013
Journal
Astronomical Journal
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Jacobson, Heather R., and Eileen D. Friel. “Zirconium, Barium, Lanthanum, and Europium Abundances in Open Clusters.” The Astronomical Journal 145, no. 4 (March 14, 2013): 107. © 2013 The American Astronomical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We present an analysis of the s-process elements Zr, Ba, and La and the r-process element Eu in a sample of 50 stars in 19 open clusters. Stellar abundances of each element are based on measures of a minimum of two lines per species via both equivalent width and spectrum synthesis techniques. We investigate cluster mean neutron-capture abundance trends as a function of cluster age and location in the Milky Way disk and compare them to results found in other studies in the literature. We find a statistically significant trend of increasing cluster [Ba/Fe] as a function of decreasing cluster age, in agreement with recent findings for other open cluster samples, supporting the increased importance of low-mass asymptotic giant branch stars to the generation of s-process elements. However, the other s-process elements, [La/Fe] and [Zr/Fe], do not show similar dependences, in contrast to theoretical expectations and the limited observational data from other studies. Conversely, cluster [Eu/Fe] ratios show a slight increase with increasing cluster age, although with marginal statistical significance. Ratios of [s/r]-process abundances, [Ba/Eu] and [La/Eu], however, show more clearly the increasing efficiency of s-process relative to r-process enrichment in open cluster chemical evolution, with significant increases among younger clusters. Last, cluster neutron-capture element abundances appear to be independent of Galactocentric distance. We conclude that a homogeneous analysis of a larger sample of open clusters is needed to resolve the apparent discrepant conclusions between different studies regarding s-process element abundance trends with age to better inform models of galactic chemical evolution.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/145/4/107
