Abundance Ratios in Extreme Metal-Poor Stars

In extremely metal-poor stars ([Fe/H]≤ − 2.5) the neutron capture elementsare characterized by a 300-fold dispersion in M/Fe ratios which decreases with increasing metallicity, the median M/Fe ratio increases with increasing [Fe/H], but the averageM/Fe number ratio is approximately constant. These observations are consistent witha highly dispersed intrinsic yield of neutron-capture elements in supernova (SN) events,and a progression to increasing metallicity by stochastic chemical evolution.The abundance trends indicate that the synthesis of elements heavier thanbarium was dominated by the r-process. The Sr/Ba ratio shows a dispersionwhich suggests a stochastic source of Sr in excess of the r-process value;possibly due to the alpha-rich freeze out.The iron-peak elements Cr, Mn, and Co show non-solar abundance ratios forextreme metal-poor stars, and no measurableintrinsic dispersion relative to iron. We discuss chemical evolution models which explain these observations. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Radioactive Ages of Metal-Poor Halo Stars

The abundances of long-lived radioactive elements Th and U observed in metal-poor halo stars can be used as chronometers to determine the age of individual stars, and hence set a lower limit on the age of the Galaxy and hence of the universe. This radioactive dating requires the zero-decay productions of Th and U, which involves complicated r-process nucleosynthesis calculations. Several parametric r-process models have been used to calculate the initial abundance ratios of Th/Eu and U/Th, but, due to the sharp sensitivity of these models to nuclear physics inputs, the calculations have relatively large uncertainties which lead to large uncertainties in the age determinations. In order to reduce these uncertainties, we present a simple method to estimate the initial productions of Th and U, which only depends on the solar system abundances and the stellar abundances of stable r-process elements. From our calculations of the initial abundance ratios of Th/Eu and U/Th, we re-estimate the ages of those ver     

极贫金属晕星中Eu元素的起源

快中子过程(r-过程)发生在富中子的环境中.但是它所在的具体天体物理环境并不是很清楚.随着观测的进展,近年发现了很多的极贫金属的晕星.它们有两个特征:一是快中子元素超丰,并且相对丰度与太阳上的一致.另一个特征是当金属丰度一样时,星体中快中子元素的含量有大的弥散性.这为研究r-过程起源提供了一种独特的途径.模拟计算的方法,用于研究星系演化的过程,以及相伴发生的恒星的快中子核素含量的弥散性,可用来了解快中子元素的起源这样得出的星系演化模型,不仅包含了气体区域自发的恒星形成,而且考虑了超新星爆发激发的恒星形成.结果显示,低质量端的超新星应是快中子核素的产生地.同时,超新星引起的星系演化的不均匀性不足以解释观测到的晕星快中子元素含量的弥散,因此这个问题还有待于更进一步研究.     

贫金属富碳天琴RR变星的形成

贫金属富碳恒星(Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor, CEMP)是研究宇宙早期恒星性质和化学演化的极佳样本,通常认为来自双星.目前发现的贫金属富碳星中有9颗天琴RR变星(RR Lyrae star, RRL),其中至少7颗未表现出任何双星特征.传统双星物质转移模型不足以充分解释贫金属富碳天琴RR变星(CEMP-RR Lyrae)单星的形成.之前研究表明氦白矮星和赫氏空隙星(HG)的并合模型可以解释部分富碳红巨星单星的碳增丰现象,因此贫金属富碳星单星也可能来自氦白矮星和赫氏空隙星的并合模型渠道.通过详细计算的氦白矮星和赫氏空隙星并合模型来检验这一演化渠道,结果表明:该并合模型在后续的演化过程中,其重力加速度、温度、表面碳丰度均能与观测符合较好.由此,氦白矮星和赫氏空隙星并合模型极有可能是贫金属富碳天琴RR变星的形成渠道之一.     

Formation of Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor RR Lyrae Stars

Carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars are considered to be related to the first generation of stars, and responsible for the chemical evolution of the early Galaxy. More than half of them are in binaries, and could be explained by the binary evolution, but the formation channel of them is still not fully understood. Among the hundreds of CEMP stars, there are nine CEMP RR Lyrae stars identified, and at least seven of which are very likely not binaries. The usual binary star evolution channel is difficult to produce such a single star, particularly that of carbon enrichment. One way in which such a single star might be produced is the merger of a helium white dwarf with a Hertzsprung gap (HG) star. We use a stellar evolution program to calculate the models of the merger remnants, and find that the models can reproduce the observed distribution of these CEMP single RR Lyrae stars in terms of surface temperature, gravity, and carbon abundance. Hence, it is extremely possible that the helium white dwarf and HG star merger model is one of the formation channels of the metal-poor carbon-rich RR Lyrae stars.     

Survival of 6Li, and 7Li, in Metal-Poor Stars

The relationship between the depletions of ⁶Li and ⁷Li is studied for two models of lithium burning, below the convective zone. The parametersof the depletion models are submitted to the constraint that the slope ofthe ⁷Li theoretical depletion curve agrees with the slope of theobserved depletion curve, for cool subdwarfs. Other less restrictive modelsare also considered.In all cases, a ⁶Li depletion less than 0.5 dex implies a ⁷Lidepletion less than 0.1 dex. With the constraint on the slope of the⁷Li curve, the depletion of ⁷Li for the same depletion of ⁶Li is below 0.05 dex. The still unsolved problem for the true ⁷Li abundance in subdwarfs is the possible influence of temperature inhomogeneities, raised by Kurucz,subsequently shown to be small in the solar case, but not yet computed withthe inclusion of departure from LTE for metal-poor stars. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

贫金属星重元素丰度研究进展

简要综述了核天体物理学热点课题——     

An Estimation of the Galactic Escape Velocity From High-Velocity Metal-Poor Stars

A large number of high-velocity stars was included in the Hipparcos Input Catalogue for the purpose of determining the galactic escape velocity in the solar vicinity. However, the `fastest' stars known, listed by Carney et al. (1994, CLLA) were not included because they are too faint. In the intersection between the CLLA list and the Hipparcos Catalogue (770 common stars), the metal-deficient stars with the most reliable parallaxes (fracσ_ππ)_HIP ≤ 0.15) are used for recalibrating CLLA absolute magnitudes and photometric parallaxes, using metallicities and VandenBerg et al. (1998) isochrones. In this way, about twenty non-Hipparcos stars get improved parallaxes and are added to our primary sample of Hipparcos high-velocity stars, for a better determination of the escape velocity from the Galaxy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

中等贫金属星高分辨率光谱分析Ⅱ.化学元素丰度

在第1篇论文的基础上，确定了样本星的恒星大气参数，得到这些星中9种元素的丰度。讨论了各种元素丰度随[Fe/H]的变化。平均的[Na/Fe]～－0．01dex，接近于太阳丰度。α元素Si和Ca具有几乎相同的丰度模式，而[Ti/Fe]弥散较大，但三者均有随[Fe/H]的减小而增加的趋势。铁峰元素V、Cr、Ni在不同丰度处有较大的弥散，[Cr/Fe]在所有样本星中均表现超丰；而[Mn/Fe]却明显过贫，且随金属丰度的增加而增加。     

Prompt Iron Enrichment, Two r-Process Components, and Abundances in Very Metal-Poor Stars

We compare the structure and substructure of dark matter halos in model universes dominated by collisional, strongly self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) and collisionless, weakly interacting dark matter (CDM). While SIDM virialized halos are more nearly spherical than CDM halos, they can be rotationally flattened by as much as 20% in their inner regions. Substructure halos suffer ram-pressure truncation and drag, which are more rapid and severe than their gravitational counterparts tidal stripping and dynamical friction. Lensing constraints on the size of galactic halos in clusters are a factor of 2 smaller than predicted by gravitational stripping, and the recent detection of tidal streams of stars escaping from the satellite galaxy Carina suggests that its tidal radius is close to its optical radius of a few hundred parsecs-an order of magnitude smaller than predicted by CDM models but consistent with SIDM models. The orbits of SIDM satellites suffer significant velocity bias, sigmaSIDM&solm0;sigmaCDM=0.85, and are more circular than CDM satellites, betaSIDM approximately 0.5, in agreement with the inferred orbits of the Galaxy's satellites. In the limit of a short mean free path, SIDM halos have singular isothermal density profiles; thus, in its simplest incarnation SIDM, is inconsistent with galactic rotation curves.     

Non－LTE Analysis of the Sodium Abundance of Metal－Poor Stars in the Galactic Disk and Halo

We performed an extensive non-LTE analysis of the neutral sodiumlines of Na I 5683/5688, 5890/5896, 6154/6161, and 8183/8195 in disk/halo starsof types F-K covering a wide metallicity range (-4 [Fe/H] +0.4), using ourown data as well as data collected from the literature. For comparatively metal-rich disk stars (-1 [Fe/H] +0.4) where the weaker 6154/6161 lines are thebest abundance indicators, we confirmed [Na/Fe] ～ 0 with an "upturn" (i.e., ashallow/broad dip around -0.5 [Fe/H] 0) as already reported in previousstudies. For the metal-deficient halo stars, where the much stronger 5890/5896 or8183/8195 lines subject to considerable (negative) non-LTE corrections amountingto 0.5 dex have to be used, our analysis suggests mildly "subsolar" [Na/Fe] valuesdown to ～ -0.4 (with a somewhat large scatter of ～±0.2 dex) on the average at thetypical halo metallicity of [Fe/H] ～ -2, followed by a rise again to a near-solar ratioof [Na/Fe] ～ 0 at the very metal-poor regime [Fe/H] ～ -3 to -4. These resultsare discussed in comparison with the previous observational studies along with thetheoretical predictions from the available chemical evolution models.     

A Statistical Model for Predicting the Average Abundance Patterns of Heavier Elements in Metal-Poor Stars

We have collected nearly all the available observed data of the elements from Ba to Dy in halo and disk stars in the metallicity range -4.0 <[Fe/H]< 0.5. Based on the observed data of Ba and Eu, we evaluated the least-squares regressions of [Ba/Fe] on [Fe/H], and [Eu/H] on [Ba/H]. Assuming that the heavy elements (heavier than Ba) are produced by a combination of the main components of s- and r-processes in metal-poor stars, and choosing Ba and Eu as respective representative elements of the main s- and the main r-processes, a statistical model for predicting the Galactic chemical evolution of the heavy elements is presented. With this model, we calculate the mean abundance trends of the heavy elements La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, and Dy with the metallicity. We compare our results with the observed data at various metallicities, showing that the predicted trends are in good agreement with the observed trends, at least for the metallicity range [Fe/H]> -2.5. Finally, we discuss our results and deduce some importa     

中等贫金属星高分辨率光谱分析 I.光谱数据与等值宽度

利用北京天文台兴隆观测基地2.16米望远镜的折轴阶梯光栅摄谱仪，获得了一批中等贫金属星的高分辨率，高信噪比光谱，通过MIDAS软件包对其中7颗中等贫金属星进行了光谱处理，得到了它们的等值宽度，最后给出院 样本恒星的等值宽度及误差分析。     

统计SDSS-DR7中的CEMP星并分析其温度和光谱型

统计了SDSS(The Sloan Digital Sky Survey)最新发布的DR7(Data Release 7)数据中的CEMP星(Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars).分析了样本的温度、光谱型、颜色等物理参量,同时给出了CEMP星在SDSS贫金属星中占的比例约为11%.统计得到SDSS_SSPP(The SEGUE Stellar Parameter Pipeline)发布的CEMP星样本的温度主要集中在6000～9000 K范围内.采用PLSR(偏最小二乘回归)方法计算样本的温度并给出其光谱型,结果显示与SSPP发布的温度比较没有系统误差,但在温度较高时,随机误差较大,这与SSPP中采用不同方法给出的温度值是一致的.从颜色-颜色图上看,选出的CEMP星主要包含两类星:BHB/BS和F(F Turn-Off),前者温度较高且温度误差相对较大.通过样本在Log(g)-颜色图上的划分,可以区分BHB和BS样本.最后讨论了BHB/BS和F(F Turn-Off)中C元素的来源.     

Formation of Dust in Hostile Environments — What We Learn from Observing Wolf-Rayet Stars

The formation of dust in Wolf-Rayet stellar winds presents challenges to our understanding on account of the stars' strong UV radiation fields. These would heat the dust grains to sublimation unless they were shielded or restricted to significant distances (∼ 100 AU) from the stars where the wind densities appear to be too low to allow dust formation. Valuable clues are provided by observations of episodic dust formation on different mass- and time-scales, especially major outbursts modulated by orbital motion in binaries. Wind inhomogeneities on all scales — global wind-compressed zones arising from stellar rotation, high-density wakes produced in colliding-wind binaries and smaller clumps all appear to be significant. The observational evidence for these effects is reviewed. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.