The role of binaries in the enrichment of the early Galactic halo

Nordström

et al. 2016

A&A

Self Cite

Context. An increasing fraction of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars is found as their iron abundance, [Fe/H], decreases below [Fe/H] = −2.0. The CEMP-s stars have the highest absolute carbon abundances, [C/H], and are thought to owe their enrichment in carbon and the slow neutron-capture (s-process) elements to mass transfer from a former asymptotic giant branch (AGB) binary companion. The most Fe-poor CEMP stars are normally single, exhibit somewhat lower [C/H] than CEMP-s stars, but show no s-process element enhancement (CEMP-no stars). Abundance determinations of CNO offer clues to their formation sites. Aims. Our aim is to use the medium-resolution spectrograph X-Shooter/VLT to determine stellar parameters and abundances for C, N, Sr, and Ba in several classes of CEMP stars in order to further classify and constrain the astrophysical formation sites of these stars. Methods. Atmospheric parameters for our programme stars were estimated from a combination of V − K photometry, model isochrone fits, and estimates from a modified version of the SDSS/SEGUE spectroscopic pipeline. We then used X-Shooter spectra in conjunction with the 1D local thermodynamic equilibrium spectrum synthesis code MOOG, 1D ATLAS9 atmosphere models to derive stellar abundances, and, where possible, isotopic 12 C/ 13 C ratios. Results. Abundances (or limits) of C, N, Sr, and Ba are derived for a sample of 27 faint metal-poor stars for which the X-Shooter spectra have sufficient signal-to-noise ratios (S/N). These moderate resolution, low S/N (∼10−40) spectra prove sufficient to perform limited chemical tagging and enable assignment of these stars into the CEMP subclasses (CEMP-s and CEMP-no). According to the derived abundances, 17 of our sample stars are CEMP-s and 3 are CEMP-no, while the remaining 7 are carbon-normal. For four CEMP stars, the subclassification remains uncertain, and two of them may be pulsating AGB stars. Conclusions. The derived stellar abundances trace the formation processes and sites of our sample stars. The [C/N] abundance ratio is useful for identifying stars with chemical compositions unaffected by internal mixing, and the [Sr/Ba] abundance ratio allows us to distinguish between CEMP-s stars with AGB progenitors and the CEMP-no stars. Suggested formation sites for the latter include faint supernovae with mixing and fallback and/or primordial, rapidly-rotating, massive stars (spinstars). X-Shooter spectra have thus proved to be valuable tools in the continued search for their origin.

Section: Target Selectionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Abundances of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars as constraints on their formation

Nordström

et al. 2016

A&A

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“…For CEMP-s stars, very few orbital elements are currently known, however (see Table 4 of Lucatello et al 2005). Thanks to the new orbits presented in this study and in the paper by Hansen et al (2016), the sample of orbital elements for CEMP binaries has doubled. The P − e diagram drawn from this extended sample should represent a benchmark for theoretical mass-transfer studies such as those of Abate et al (2013Abate et al ( , 2015a.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…We now investigate the period -eccentricity (P − e) diagram for CH and CEMP-(r)s stars, adding to the 18 systems already available in the literature the eight new orbits from Table 2, the eight new well-constrained orbits from Hansen et al (2016) and the five new orbits of CH-like stars from Sperauskas et al (2015) that we merge with the CH systems. For the sake of completeness, the data used to draw the P − e diagram of Table 4 are assigned giant status by default).…”

Section: Cemp-s Vs Ch Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Binary properties of CH and carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars

Jorissen

Eck

Winckel

et al. 2016

A&A

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The HERMES spectrograph installed on the 1.2-m Mercator telescope has been used to monitor the radial velocity of 13 lowmetallicity carbon stars, among which seven carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars and six CH stars (including HIP 53522, a new member of the family, as revealed by a detailed abundance study). All stars but one show clear evidence for binarity. New orbits are obtained for eight systems. The sample covers an extended range in orbital periods, extending from 3.4 d (for the dwarf carbon star HE 0024-2523) to about 54 yr (for the CH star HD 26, the longest known among barium, CH, and extrinsic S stars). Three systems exhibit low-amplitude velocity variations with periods close to 1 yr superimposed on a long-term trend. In the absence of an accurate photometric monitoring of these systems, it is not clear yet whether these variations are the signature of a very lowmass companion or of regular envelope pulsations. The period -eccentricity (P − e) diagram for the 40 low-metallicity carbon stars with orbits now available shows no difference between CH and CEMP-s stars (the latter corresponding to those CEMP stars enriched in s-process elements, as are CH stars). We suggest that they must be considered as one and the same family and that their different names only stem from historical reasons. Indeed, these two families have as well very similar mass-function distributions, corresponding to companions with masses in the range 0.5-0.7 M , indicative of white-dwarf companions, adopting 0.8-0.9 M for the primary component. This result confirms that CH and CEMP-s stars obey the same mass-transfer scenario as their highermetallicity analogues, barium stars. The P − e diagrams of barium, CH, and CEMP-s stars are indeed very similar. They reveal two different groups of systems: one with short orbital periods (P < 1000 d) and mostly circular or almost circular orbits, and another with longer period and eccentric (e > 0.1) orbits. These two groups either trace different evolutionary channels during the mass-transfer episode responsible for the chemical peculiarities of the Ba/CH/CEMP-s stars, or result from the operation of tidal circularisation in a more recent past, when the current giant star was ascending the first giant branch.

“…By considering a sample of CEMP-s stars, Lucatello et al (2005) and Starkenburg et al (2014) have shown that the whole sample is consistent with the hypothesis of them all existing in binary systems. Hansen et al (2016) have monitored the radial velocity of 22 CEMP-s stars over several years. They have found clear orbital motion for 18 stars, giving support to the AGB scenario.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are some CEMP-s stars the daughters of spinstars?

Choplin

Hirschi

Meynet

et al. 2017

A&A

Carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP)-s stars are long-lived low-mass stars with a very low iron content as well as overabundances of carbon and s-elements. Their peculiar chemical pattern is often explained by pollution from an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star companion. Recent observations have shown that most CEMP-s stars are in binary systems, providing support to the AGB companion scenario. A few CEMP-s stars, however, appear to be single. We inspect four apparently single CEMP-s stars and discuss the possibility that they formed from the ejecta of a previous-generation massive star, referred to as the "source" star. In order to investigate this scenario, we computed low-metallicity massive-star models with and without rotation and including complete s-process nucleosynthesis. We find that non-rotating source stars cannot explain the observed abundance of any of the four CEMP-s stars. Three out of the four CEMP-s stars can be explained by a 25 M source star with v ini ∼ 500 km s −1 (spinstar). The fourth CEMP-s star has a high Pb abundance that cannot be explained by any of the models we computed. Since spinstars and AGB predict different ranges of [O/Fe] and [ls/hs], these ratios could be an interesting way to further test these two scenarios.