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At least 775 records · Page 43

STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF GALACTIC {delta} SCUTI STARS: REVISITED

We present statistical characteristics of 1578 {delta} Scuti stars including nearby field stars and cluster member stars within the Milky Way. We obtained 46% of these stars (718 stars) from work by Rodriguez and collected the remaining 54% of stars (860 stars) from other literature. We updated the entries with the latest information of sky coordinates, color, rotational velocity, spectral type, period, amplitude, and binarity. The majority of our sample is well characterized in terms of typical period range (0.02-0.25 days), pulsation amplitudes (<0.5 mag), and spectral types (A-F type). Given this list of {delta} Scuti stars, we examined relations between their physical properties (i.e., periods, amplitudes, spectral types, and rotational velocities) for field stars and cluster members, and confirmed that the correlations of properties are not significantly different from those reported in Rodriguez's work. All the {delta} Scuti stars are cross-matched with several X-ray and UV catalogs, resulting in 27 X-ray and 41 UV-only counterparts. These counterparts are interesting targets for further study because of their uniqueness in showing {delta} Scuti-type variability and X-ray/UV emission at the same time. The compiled catalog can be accessed through the Web interface http://stardb.yonsei.ac.kr/DeltaScuti.

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Detection of stars within ∼0.8 in of Kepler objects of interest

We present an algorithm to search for the faint spectrum of a second star mixed with the spectrum of a brighter star in high resolution spectra. We model optical stellar spectra as the sum of two input spectra drawn from a vast library of stars throughout the H-R diagram. From typical spectra having a resolution of R = 60,000, we are able to detect companions as faint as 1% relative to the primary star in approximately the V and R bandpasses of photometry. We are also able to find evidence for triple and quadruple systems, given that any additional companions are sufficiently bright. The precise threshold percentage depends on the signal-to-noise of the spectrum and the properties of the two stars. For cases of non-detection, we place a limit on the brightness of any potential companions. This algorithm is useful for detecting faint orbiting companions and background stars that are angularly close to a foreground target star. The size of the entrance slit to the spectrometer, 0.87 × 3 arcsec (typically), sets the angular domain within which the second star can be detected. We analyzed Keck-HIRES spectra of 1160 California Kepler Survey objects of interest (KOI) searching for the secondary spectra, with the two goals of alerting the community to two possible host stars of the transiting planet and to dilution of the light curve. We report 63 California KOI showing spectroscopic evidence of a secondary star.

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THE PROPERTIES OF DYNAMICALLY EJECTED RUNAWAY AND HYPER-RUNAWAY STARS

Runaway stars are stars observed to have large peculiar velocities. Two mechanisms are thought to contribute to the ejection of runaway stars, both of which involve binarity (or higher multiplicity). In the binary supernova scenario, a runaway star receives its velocity when its binary massive companion explodes as a supernova (SN). In the alternative dynamical ejection scenario, runaway stars are formed through gravitational interactions between stars and binaries in dense, compact clusters or cluster cores. Here we study the ejection scenario. We make use of extensive N-body simulations of massive clusters, as well as analytic arguments, in order to characterize the expected ejection velocity distribution of runaway stars. We find that the ejection velocity distribution of the fastest runaways (v {approx}> 80 km s{sup -1}) depends on the binary distribution in the cluster, consistent with our analytic toy model, whereas the distribution of lower velocity runaways appears independent of the binaries' properties. For a realistic log constant distribution of binary separations, we find the velocity distribution to follow a simple power law: {Gamma}(v){proportional_to}v{sup -8/3} for the high-velocity runaways and v{sup -3/2} for the low-velocity ones. We calculate the total expected ejection rates of runaway stars from our simulated massive clusters and explore their mass function and their binarity. The mass function of runaway stars is biased toward high masses and strongly depends on their velocity. The binarity of runaways is a decreasing function of their ejection velocity, with no binaries expected to be ejected with v > 150 km s{sup -1}. We also find that hyper-runaways with velocities of hundreds of km s{sup -1} can be dynamically ejected from stellar clusters, but only at very low rates, which cannot account for a significant fraction of the observed population of hyper-velocity stars in the Galactic halo.

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HYDRODYNAMICAL SIMULATIONS TO DETERMINE THE FEEDING RATE OF BLACK HOLES BY THE TIDAL DISRUPTION OF STARS: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE IMPACT PARAMETER AND STELLAR STRUCTURE

The disruption of stars by supermassive black holes has been linked to more than a dozen flares in the cores of galaxies out to redshift z {approx} 0.4. Modeling these flares properly requires a prediction of the rate of mass return to the black hole after a disruption. Through hydrodynamical simulation, we show that aside from the full disruption of a solar mass star at the exact limit where the star is destroyed, the common assumptions used to estimate M-dot (t), the rate of mass return to the black hole, are largely invalid. While the analytical approximation to tidal disruption predicts that the least-centrally concentrated stars and the deepest encounters should have more quickly-peaked flares, we find that the most-centrally concentrated stars have the quickest-peaking flares, and the trend between the time of peak and the impact parameter for deeply penetrating encounters reverses beyond the critical distance at which the star is completely destroyed. We also show that the most-centrally concentrated stars produced a characteristic drop in M-dot (t) shortly after peak when a star is only partially disrupted, with the power law index n being as extreme as -4 in the months immediately following the peak of a flare. Additionally, we find that n asymptotes to {approx_equal} - 2.2 for both low- and high-mass stars for approximately half of all stellar disruptions. Both of these results are significantly steeper than the typically assumed n = -5/3. As these precipitous decay rates are only seen for events in which a stellar core survives the disruption, they can be used to determine if an observed tidal disruption flare produced a surviving remnant. We provide fitting formulae for four fundamental quantities of tidal disruption as functions of the star's distance to the black hole at pericenter and its stellar structure: the total mass lost, the time of peak, the accretion rate at peak, and the power-law index shortly after peak. These results should be taken into consideration when flares arising from tidal disruptions are modeled.

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THE PROTOPLANETARY DISKS IN THE NEARBY MASSIVE STAR-FORMING REGION CYGNUS OB2

The formation of stars in massive clusters is one of the main modes of the star formation process. However, the study of massive star-forming regions is hampered by their typically large distances to the Sun. One exception to this is the massive star-forming region Cygnus OB2 in the Cygnus X region, at the distance of {approx}1400 pc. Cygnus OB2 hosts very rich populations of massive and low-mass stars, being the best target in our Galaxy to study the formation of stars, circumstellar disks, and planets in the presence of massive stars. In this paper, we combine a wide and deep set of photometric data, from the r band to 24 {mu}m, in order to select the disk-bearing population of stars in Cygnus OB2 and identify the class I, class II, and stars with transition and pre-transition disks. We selected 1843 sources with infrared excesses in an area of 1 Degree-Sign Multiplication-Sign 1 Degree-Sign centered on Cyg OB2 in several evolutionary stages: 8.4% class I, 13.1% flat-spectrum sources, 72.9% class II, 2.3% pre-transition disks, and 3.3% transition disks. The spatial distribution of these sources shows a central cluster surrounded by an annular overdensity and some clumps of recent star formation in the outer region. Several candidate subclusters are identified, both along the overdensity and in the rest of the association.

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STAR-FORMING GALAXY EVOLUTION IN NEARBY RICH CLUSTERS

Dense environments are known to quench star formation in galaxies, but it is still unknown what mechanism(s) are directly responsible. In this paper, we study the star formation of galaxies in A2029 and compare it to that of Coma, combining indicators at 24 {mu}m, H{alpha}, and UV down to rates of 0.03 M{sub Sun} yr{sup -1}. We show that A2029's star-forming galaxies follow the same mass-SFR relation as the field. The Coma cluster, on the other hand, has a population of galaxies with star formation rates (SFRs) significantly lower than the field mass-SFR relation, indicative of galaxies in the process of being quenched. Over half of these galaxies also host active galactic nuclei. Ram-pressure stripping and starvation/strangulation are the most likely mechanisms for suppressing the star formation in these galaxies, but we are unable to disentangle which is dominating. The differences we see between the two clusters' populations of star-forming galaxies may be related to their accretion histories, with A2029 having accreted its star-forming galaxies more recently than Coma. Additionally, many early-type galaxies in A2029 are detected at 24 {mu}m and/or in the far-UV, but this emission is not directly related to star formation. Similar galaxies have probably been classified as star forming in previous studies of dense clusters, possibly obscuring some of the effects of the cluster environment on true star-forming galaxies.

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THE GEMINI NICI PLANET-FINDING CAMPAIGN: THE FREQUENCY OF GIANT PLANETS AROUND YOUNG B AND A STARS

We have carried out high contrast imaging of 70 young, nearby B and A stars to search for brown dwarf and planetary companions as part of the Gemini NICI Planet-Finding Campaign. Our survey represents the largest, deepest survey for planets around high-mass stars (≈1.5-2.5 M{sub ☉}) conducted to date and includes the planet hosts β Pic and Fomalhaut. We obtained follow-up astrometry of all candidate companions within 400 AU projected separation for stars in uncrowded fields and identified new low-mass companions to HD 1160 and HIP 79797. We have found that the previously known young brown dwarf companion to HIP 79797 is itself a tight (3 AU) binary, composed of brown dwarfs with masses 58{sup +21}{sub -20} M{sub Jup} and 55{sup +20}{sub -19} M{sub Jup}, making this system one of the rare substellar binaries in orbit around a star. Considering the contrast limits of our NICI data and the fact that we did not detect any planets, we use high-fidelity Monte Carlo simulations to show that fewer than 20% of 2 M{sub ☉} stars can have giant planets greater than 4 M{sub Jup} between 59 and 460 AU at 95% confidence, and fewer than 10% of these stars can have a planet more massive than 10 M{sub Jup} between 38 and 650 AU. Overall, we find that large-separation giant planets are not common around B and A stars: fewer than 10% of B and A stars can have an analog to the HR 8799 b (7 M{sub Jup}, 68 AU) planet at 95% confidence. We also describe a new Bayesian technique for determining the ages of field B and A stars from photometry and theoretical isochrones. Our method produces more plausible ages for high-mass stars than previous age-dating techniques, which tend to underestimate stellar ages and their uncertainties.

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Magnetic and gravitational disk-star interactions: an interdependence of PMS stellar rotation rates and spin-orbit misalignments

The presence of giant gaseous planets that reside in close proximity to their host stars, i.e., hot Jupiters, may be a consequence of large-scale radial migration through the protoplanetary nebulae. Within the framework of this picture, significant orbital obliquities characteristic of a substantial fraction of such planets can be attributed to external torques that perturb the natal disks out of alignment with the spin axes of their host stars. Therefore, the acquisition of orbital obliquity likely exhibits sensitive dependence on the physics of disk-star interactions. Here, we analyze the primordial excitation of spin-orbit misalignment of Sun-like stars in light of disk-star angular momentum transfer. We begin by calculating the stellar pre-main-sequence rotational evolution, accounting for spin-up due to gravitational contraction and accretion as well as spin-down due to magnetic star-disk coupling. We devote particular attention to angular momentum transfer by accretion, and show that while generally subdominant to gravitational contraction, this process is largely controlled by the morphology of the stellar magnetic field (that is, specific angular momentum accreted by stars with octupole-dominated surface fields is smaller than that accreted by dipole-dominated stars by an order of magnitude). Subsequently, we examine the secular spin-axis dynamics of disk-bearing stars, accounting for the time-evolution of stellar and disk properties, and demonstrate that misalignments are preferentially excited in systems where stellar rotation is not overwhelmingly rapid. Moreover, we show that the excitation of spin-orbit misalignment occurs impulsively through an encounter with a resonance between the stellar precession frequency and the disk-torquing frequency. Cumulatively, the model developed herein opens up a previously unexplored avenue toward understanding star-disk evolution and its consequences in a unified manner.

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Star formation histories across the interacting galaxy NGC 6872, the largest-known spiral

NGC 6872, hereafter the Condor, is a large spiral galaxy that is interacting with its closest companion, the S0 galaxy IC 4970. The extent of the Condor provides an opportunity for detailed investigation of the impact of the interaction on the current star formation rate and its history across the galaxy, on the age and spatial distribution of its stellar population, and on the mechanism that drives the star formation activity. To address these issues we analyzed the far-ultraviolet (FUV) to near-infrared (near-IR) spectral energy distribution of seventeen 10 kpc diameter regions across the galaxy, and derived their star formation history, current star formation rate, and stellar population and mass. We find that most of the star formation takes place in the extended arms, with very little star formation in the central 5 kpc of the galaxy, in contrast to what was predicted from previous numerical simulations. There is a trend of increasing star formation activity with distance from the nucleus of the galaxy, and no evidence for a recent increase in the current star formation rate due to the interaction. The nucleus itself shows no significant current star formation activity. The extent of the Condor also provides an opportunity to test the applicability of a single standard prescription for conversion of the FUV + IR (22 μm) intensities to a star formation rate for all regions. We find that the conversion factor differs from region to region, arising from regional differences in the stellar populations.

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The star cluster system in the Local Group starburst galaxy IC 10

We present a survey of star clusters in the halo of IC 10, a starburst galaxy in the Local Group, based on Subaru R-band images and NOAO Local Group Survey UBVRI images. We find five new star clusters. All of these star clusters are located far from the center of IC 10, while previously known star clusters are mostly located in the main body. Interestingly, the distribution of these star clusters shows an asymmetrical structure elongated along the east and southwest directions. We derive UBVRI photometry of 66 star clusters, including these new star clusters, as well as previously known star clusters. Ages of the star clusters are estimated from a comparison of their UBVRI spectral energy distribution with the simple stellar population models. We find that the star clusters in the halo are all older than 1 Gyr, while those in the main body have various ages, from very young (several Myr) to old (>1 Gyr). The young clusters (<10 Myr) are mostly located in the Hα emission regions and are concentrated on a small region at 2{sup ′′} in the southeast direction from the galaxy center, while the old clusters are distributed in a wider area than the disk. Intermediate-age clusters (∼100 Myr) are found in two groups. One is close to the location of the young clusters and the other is at ∼4{sup ′′} from the location of the young clusters. The latter may be related to past mergers or tidal interaction.

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THE SYNTHETIC-OVERSAMPLING METHOD: USING PHOTOMETRIC COLORS TO DISCOVER EXTREMELY METAL-POOR STARS

Extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars ([Fe/H] ≤ −3.0 dex) provide a unique window into understanding the first generation of stars and early chemical enrichment of the universe. EMP stars are exceptionally rare, however, and the relatively small number of confirmed discoveries limits our ability to exploit these near-field probes of the first ∼500 Myr after the Big Bang. Here, a new method to photometrically estimate [Fe/H] from only broadband photometric colors is presented. I show that the method, which utilizes machine-learning algorithms and a training set of ∼170,000 stars with spectroscopically measured [Fe/H], produces a typical scatter of ∼0.29 dex. This performance is similar to what is achievable via low-resolution spectroscopy, and outperforms other photometric techniques, while also being more general. I further show that a slight alteration to the model, wherein synthetic EMP stars are added to the training set, yields the robust identification of EMP candidates. In particular, this synthetic-oversampling method recovers ∼20% of the EMP stars in the training set, at a precision of ∼0.05. Furthermore, ∼65% of the false positives from the model are very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] ≤ −2.0 dex). The synthetic-oversampling method is biased toward the discovery of warm (∼F-type) stars, a consequence of the targeting bias from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey/Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding survey. This EMP selection method represents a significant improvement over alternative broadband optical selection techniques. The models are applied to >12 million stars, with an expected yield of ∼600 new EMP stars, which promises to open new avenues for exploring the early universe.

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Study of the element abundances in HD 140283: The abundance robustness of the weak r- and main r-process stars

Many works have attempted to investigate the astrophysical origin of the neutron-capture elements in the metal-poor star HD 140283. However, no definite conclusions have been drawn. In this work, using the abundance-decomposed approach, we find that the metal-poor star HD 140283 is a weak r-process star. Although this star is a weak r-process star, its Ba abundance mainly originates from the main r-process. This is the reason that the ratio [Ba/Eu]= −0.58±0.15 for HD 140283 is close to the ratio of the main r-process. Based on the comparison of the abundances in the six-weak r-process stars, we find that their element abundances possess a robust nature. On the other hand, we find that the robust nature of the abundance of the extreme main r-process stars ([r/Fe] ⩾ 1.5) can be extended to the lighter neutron-capture elements. Furthermore, the abundance characteristics of the weak r-process and main r-process are investigated. The abundance robustness of the two category r-process stars could be used as the constraint of the r-process theory and could be used to investigate the astrophysical origins of the elements in the metal-poor stars and population I stars.

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GLOBAL X-RAY PROPERTIES OF THE O AND B STARS IN CARINA

The key empirical property of the X-ray emission from O stars is a strong correlation between the bolometric and X-ray luminosities. In the framework of the Chandra Carina Complex Project, 129 O and B stars have been detected as X-ray sources; 78 of those, all with spectral type earlier than B3, have enough counts for at least a rough X-ray spectral characterization. This leads to an estimate of the L{sub X}-L{sub BOL} ratio for an exceptional number of 60 O stars belonging to the same region and triples the number of Carina massive stars studied spectroscopically in X-rays. The derived log(L{sub X}/L{sub BOL}) is -7.26 for single objects, with a dispersion of only 0.21 dex. Using the properties of hot massive stars listed in the literature, we compare the X-ray luminosities of different types of objects. In the case of O stars, the L{sub X}-L{sub BOL} ratios are similar for bright and faint objects, as well as for stars of different luminosity classes or spectral types. Binaries appear only slightly harder and slightly more luminous in X-rays than single objects; the differences are not formally significant (at the 1% level), except for the L{sub X}-L{sub BOL} ratio in the medium (1.0-2.5 keV) energy band. Weak-wind objects have similar X-ray luminosities but they display slightly softer spectra compared with 'normal' O stars with the same bolometric luminosity. Discarding three overluminous objects, we find a very shallow trend of harder emission in brighter objects. The properties of the few B stars bright enough to yield some spectral information appear to be different overall (constant X-ray luminosities, harder spectra), hinting that another mechanism for producing X-rays, besides wind shocks, might be at work. However, it must be stressed that the earliest and X-ray brightest among these few detected objects are similar to the latest O stars, suggesting a possibly smooth transition between the two processes.

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X-ray emission from massive stars in CYG OB2

We report on the analysis of the Chandra-ACIS data of O, B, and WR stars in the young association Cyg OB2. X-ray spectra of 49 O-stars, 54 B-stars, and 3 WR-stars are analyzed and for the brighter sources, the epoch dependence of the X-ray fluxes is investigated. The O-stars in Cyg OB2 follow a well-defined scaling relation between their X-ray and bolometric luminosities: log ((L{sub X})/(L{sub bol}))=−7.2±0.2. This relation is in excellent agreement with the one previously derived for the Carina OB1 association. Except for the brightest O-star binaries, there is no general X-ray overluminosity due to colliding winds in O-star binaries. Roughly half of the known B-stars in the surveyed field are detected, but they fail to display a clear relationship between L{sub X} and L{sub bol}. Out of the three WR stars in Cyg OB2, probably only WR 144 is itself responsible for the observed level of X-ray emission, at a very low log ((L{sub X})/(L{sub bol}))=−8.8±0.2. The X-ray emission of the other two WR-stars (WR 145 and 146) is most probably due to their O-type companion along with a moderate contribution from a wind–wind interaction zone.

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A NEW CEMP-s RR LYRAE STAR

We show that SDSS J170733.93+585059.7 (hereafter SDSS J1707+58), previously identified by Aoki and collaborators as a carbon-enhanced metal-poor star (with s-process-element enhancements, CEMP-s), on the assumption that it is a main-sequence turnoff star, is the RR Lyrae star VIII-14 identified by the Lick Astrograph Survey. Revised abundances for SDSS J1707+58 are [Fe/H] = -2.92, [C/Fe] = +2.79, and [Ba/Fe] = +2.83. It is thus one of the most metal-poor RR Lyrae stars known, and has more extreme [C/Fe] and [Ba/Fe] than the only other RR Lyrae star known to have a CEMP-s spectrum (TY Gru). Both stars are Oosterhoff II stars with prograde kinematics, in contrast to stars with [C/Fe] < + 0.7, such as KP Cyg and UY CrB, which are disk stars. Twelve other RR Lyrae stars with [C/Fe] {>=}+0.7 are presented as CEMP candidates for further study.

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DISCOVERY OF TWO RARE RIGIDLY ROTATING MAGNETOSPHERE STARS IN THE APOGEE SURVEY

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE)—one of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III programs—is using near-infrared (NIR) spectra of ∼100,000 red giant branch star candidates to study the structure of the Milky Way. In the course of the survey, APOGEE also acquires spectra of hot field stars to serve as telluric calibrators for the primary science targets. We report the serendipitous discovery of two rare, fast-rotating B-stars of the σ Ori E type among those blue field stars observed during the first year of APOGEE operations. Both of the discovered stars display the spectroscopic signatures of rigidly rotating magnetospheres (RRM) common to this class of highly magnetized (B ∼ 10 kGauss) stars, increasing the number of known RRM stars by ∼10%. One (HD 345439) is a main-sequence B-star with unusually strong He absorption (similar to σ Ori E), while the other (HD 23478) fits a ''He-normal'' B3IV classification. We combine the APOGEE discovery spectra with other optical and NIR spectra of these two stars, and of σ Ori E itself, to show how NIR spectroscopy can be a uniquely powerful tool for discovering more of these rare objects, which may show little/no RRM signatures in their optical spectra. We discuss the potential for further discovery of σ Ori E type stars, as well as the implications of our discoveries for the population of these objects and insights into their origin and evolution.

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On the inconsistency of [C/Fe] abundances and the fractions of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars among various stellar surveys

Carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars are a unique resource for Galactic archaeology because they probe the properties of the First Stars, early chemical evolution, and binary interactions at very low metallicity. Comparing the fractions and properties of CEMP stars in different Galactic environments can provide us with unique insights into the formation and evolution of the Milky Way halo and its building blocks. In this work, we investigate whether directly comparing fractions of CEMP stars from different literature samples of very metal-poor [Fe/H] < -2.0 stars is valid. We compiled published CEMP fractions and samples of Galactic halo stars from the past 25 years, and find that they are not all consistent with each other. Focusing on giant stars, we find significant differences between various surveys when comparing their trends of [Fe/H] versus [C/Fe] and their distributions of CEMP stars. To test the role of the analysis pipelines for low-resolution spectroscopic samples, we re-analysed giant stars from various surveys with the sspp and ferre pipelines. We found systematic differences in [C/Fe] of ~0.1-0.4 dex, partly independent of degeneracies with the stellar atmospheric parameters. These systematics are likely due to the different pipeline approaches, different assumptions in the employed synthetic grids, and/or the comparison of different evolutionary phases. We conclude that current biases in (the analysis of) very metal-poor samples limit the conclusions one can draw from comparing different surveys. We provide some recommendations and suggestions that will hopefully aid the community to unlock the full potential of CEMP stars for Galactic archaeology.

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Abundance analysis of APOGEE spectra for 58 metal-poor stars from the bulge spheroid

The central part of the Galaxy hosts a multitude of stellar populations, including the spheroidal bulge stars, stars moved to the bulge through secular evolution of the bar, inner halo, inner thick disc, inner thin disc, as well as debris from past accretion events. We identified a sample of 58 candidate stars belonging to the stellar population of the spheroidal bulge, and analyse their abundances. The present calculations of Mg, Ca, and Si lines are in agreement with the ASPCAP abundances, whereas abundances of C, N, O, and Ce are re-examined. We find normal α-element enhancements in oxygen, similar to magnesium, Si, and Ca abundances, which are typical of other bulge stars surveyed in the optical in Baade’s Window. The enhancement of [O/Fe] in these stars suggests that they do not belong to accreted debris. No spread in N abundances is found, and none of the sample stars is N-rich, indicating that these stars are not second generation stars originated in globular clusters. Ce instead is enhanced in the sample stars, which points to an s-process origin such as due to enrichment from early generations of massive fast rotating stars, the so-called spinstars.

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