The origin and chemical evolution of carbon in the Galactic thin and thick disks

Abstract

[ABRIDGED] In order to trace the origin and evolution of carbon in the Galactic disk we have determined carbon abundances in 51 nearby F and G dwarf stars. The sample is divided into two kinematically distinct subsamples with 35 and 16 stars that are representative of the Galactic thin and thick disks, respectively. The analysis is based on spectral synthesis of the forbidden [C I] line at 872.7 nm using spectra of very high resolution (R~220000)and high signal-to-noise (S/N>300) that were obtained with the CES spectrograph on the ESO 3.6-m telescope on La Silla in Chile. We find that [C/Fe] versus [Fe/H] trends for the thin and thick disks are totally merged and flat for sub-solar metallicities. The thin disk that extends to higher metallicities than the thick disk,shows a shallow decline in [C/Fe] from [Fe/H]=0 and up to [Fe/H]=+0.4. The [C/O] versus [O/H] trends are well separated between the two disks (due to differences in the oxygen abundances)and bear a great resemblance to the [Fe/O] versus [O/H] trends. Our interpretation of our abundance trends is that the sources that are responsible for the carbon enrichment in the Galactic thin and thick disks have operated on a time-scale very similar to those that are responsible for the Fe and Y enrichment (i.e., SNIa and AGB stars, respectively)...... For the Galaxy we hence conclude that the carbon enrichment at metallicities typical of the disk is mainly due to low and intermediate mass stars, while massive stars are still the main carbon contributor at low metallicities (halo and metal-poor thick disk).

15 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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