Cu and Zn in the early Galaxy

Abstract

We present Cu and Zn abundances for 38 FGK stars, mostly dwarfs, spanning a metallicity range between solar and [Fe/H] =-3. The abundances were obtained using Kurucz's local thermal equilibrium (LTE) model atmospheres and the near-UV lines of CuI 3273.95 A and ZnI 3302.58 A observed at high spectral resolution. The trend of [Cu/Fe] versus [Fe/H] is almost solar for [Fe/H] > -1 and then decreases to a plateau <[Cu/Fe]> =-0.98 at [Fe/H] <-2.5, whereas the [Zn/Fe] trend is essentially solar for [Fe/H] >-2 and then slightly increases at lower metallicities to an average value of <[Zn/Fe]> =+ 0.18. We compare our results with previous work on these elements, and briefly discuss them in terms of nucleosynthesis processes. Predictions of halo chemical evolution fairly reproduce the trends, especially the [Cu/Fe] plateau at very low metallicities, but to a lower extent the greater [Zn/Fe] ratios at low metallicities, indicating eventually missing yields.

11 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Astronomy and Astrophysics

References in corpus (16)

• Nucleosynthesis in Chandrasekhar Mass Models for Type Ia Supernovae and Constraints on Progenitor Systems and Burning-Front Propagation
• Nucleosynthesis of Zinc and Iron-Peak Elements in Pop III Type II Supernovae : Comparison with abundances of Very Metal-Poor Halo Stars
• Abundances and Kinematics of Field Halo and Disk Stars I: Observational Data and Abundance Analysis
• The extreme r-element rich, iron-poor halo giant CS31082-001: Implications for the r-process site(s) and radioactive cosmochronology
• The Galactic Thick Disk Stellar Abundances
• Stellar Iron Abundances: non-LTE Effects
• Abundances for metal-poor stars with accurate parallaxes I. Basic data
• Chemical composition of 90 F and G disk dwarfs
• Abundances of Cu and Zn in metal-poor stars: clues for Galaxy evolution
• Models for Old, Metal-Poor Stars with Enhanced alpha-Element Abundances. III. Isochrones and Isochrone Population Functions
• Oxygen in the Very Early Galaxy
• A Consistency Test of Spectroscopic Gravities for Late-Type Stars
• A Comparison of Copper Abundances in Globular Cluster and Halo Field Giant Stars
• Sulphur abundance in very metal-poor stars
• Copper and Barium Abundances in the Ursa Major Moving Group
• Disk galaxy evolution: from the Milky Way to high-redshift disks

Cited by in corpus (37)

• Elemental Abundance Survey of The Galactic Thick Disk
• Damped Lyman alpha Systems
• Quantifying the uncertainties of chemical evolution studies. II. Stellar yields
• Detailed Abundances for 28 Metal-poor Stars: Stellar Relics in the Milky Way
• The exotic chemical composition of the Sagittarius dwarf Spheroidal galaxy
• The Hamburg/ESO R-process Enhanced Star survey (HERES) III. HE 0338-3945 and the formation of the r+s stars
• New Extremely Metal-Poor Stars in the Galactic Halo
• Hubble Space Telescope Observations of Element Abundances in Low-redshift Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxies and Implications for the Global Metallicity-Redshift Relation
• Galactic Evolution of Nitrogen
• C, S, Zn and Cu abundances in planet-harbouring stars
• The Stellar Abundances for Galactic Archaeology (SAGA) Database III - Analysis of Enrichment Histories for Elements and Two Modes of Star Formation during the Early Evolution of Milky Way
• Cosmic Star Formation, Reionization, and Constraints on Global Chemical Evolution
• The Hobby-Eberly Telescope "Chemical Abundances of Stars in the Halo" (CASH) Project. I. The Lithium-, s-, and r-Enhanced Metal-Poor Giant HKII 17435-00532
• The AMBRE project: Iron-peak elements in the solar neighbourhood
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: Galactic evolution of sulphur and zinc
• 3D LTE spectral line formation with scattering in red giant stars
• Contrasting copper evolution in Omega Centauri and the Milky Way
• Galactic evolution of Copper in the light of NLTE computations
• Chemical abundances of giant stars in NGC 5053 and NGC 5634, two globular clusters associated with the Sagittarius dwarf Spheroidal galaxy?
• A New Test of Copper and Zinc Abundances in Late-Type Stars Using Ultraviolet Cu II and Zn II Lines
• Non-LTE analysis of copper abundances for the two distinct halo populations in the solar neighborhood
• Non-LTE analysis of neutral copper in the late-type metal-poor stars
• The chemical DNA of the Magellanic Clouds -- I. The chemical composition of 206 Small Magellanic Cloud red giant stars
• NGC 5694: another foster son of the Galactic Halo
• Copper abundance from Cu I and Cu II lines in metal-poor star spectra: NLTE vs LTE
• NLTE analysis of copper lines in different stellar populations
• UVES observations of the Canis Major overdensity
• Neutron activation of natural zinc samples at kT = 25 keV
• Cu I resonance lines in turn-off stars of NGC 6752 and NGC 6397. Effects of granulation from CO5BOLD models
• GalCEM I -- An Open-Source Detailed Isotopic Chemical Evolution Code
• Revisiting inelastic Cu+H collisions and the non-LTE Galactic evolution of copper
• NLTE Analysis of Copper Abundances in the Galactic Bulge Stars
• The in situ origin of the globular cluster NGC 6388 from abundances of Sc, V, and Zn of a large sample of stars
• CD -24_17504 revisited: a new comprehensive element abundance analysis
• Estimating stellar effective temperatures and detected angular parameters using stochastic particle swarm optimization
• Chemical analysis of carbon stars in the Local Group: I. The Small Magellanic Cloud and the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• Impact of the latest 22Ne+α reaction rates on nucleosynthesis in massive stars and galactic chemical evolution