English

Sulphur abundance in Galactic stars

Astrophysics 2009-11-11 v1

Abstract

We investigate sulphur abundance in 74 Galactic stars by using high resolution spectra obtained at ESO VLT and NTT telescopes. For the first time the abundances are derived, where possible, from three optical multiplets: Mult. 1, 6, and 8. By combining our own measurements with data in the literature we assemble a sample of 253 stars in the metallicity range -3.2 < [Fe/H] < +0.5. Two important features, which could hardly be detected in smaller samples, are obvious from this large sample: 1) a sizeable scatter in [S/Fe] ratios around [Fe/H] ~ -1 ; 2) at low metallicities we observe stars with [S/Fe] ~ 0.4, as well as stars with higher [S/Fe] ratios. The latter do not seem to be kinematically different from the former ones. Whether the latter finding stems from a distinct population of metal-poor stars or simply from an increased scatter in sulphur abundances remains an open question.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0507030,
  title  = {Sulphur abundance in Galactic stars},
  author = {E. Caffau and P. Bonifacio and R. Faraggiana and P. Francois and R. G. Gratton and M. Barbieri},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0507030},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

accepted by A&A