富锂巨星研究概述

锂(Li)元素最初诞生于大爆炸核合成,是最重要的轻元素之一.但锂元素丰度在很多类天体中均表现出观测与理论不符的现象,这一问题困扰了天体物理学家数十年.富锂巨星就是这样的一类天体,它们大气中的Li丰度超过了标准恒星演化模型的理论值.虽然富锂巨星早在约四十年前就被发现,但其起源依然是未解之谜.随着以郭守敬望远镜(LAMOST)巡天等为代表的大型光谱巡天项目的开展、以开普勒(Kepler)卫星为代表的星震学观测数据的产出以及数据驱动类方法和技术的飞速发展,针对富锂巨星的研究取得了一系列重要的突破.在此将回顾富锂巨星近四十年来的研究进展,并总结对于富锂巨星最新的认知.     

红团簇巨星α元素丰度

基于高分辨率、高信噪比光谱观测资料,分析了１７颗红团簇巨星的５种α元素（Ｍｇ、Ｓｉ、Ｓ、Ｃａ、Ｔｉ）的化学丰工,结果表明,按金属丰度的不同可以将红团簇巨星分为两类：一类是富金属红团簇巨星（「Ｆｅ／Ｈ」≥０．０）;另一类为贫金属丰度红团簇巨星（「Ｆｅ／Ｈ」≤－０．３）,这两类红团簇巨星中的５种α元素均具有随金属丰度变大而增丰的趋势,同时,分析还表明,这两类红团簇巨星的α元素与铁元素的增丰历史可能是同     

太阳大气锂丰度的衰减

太阳大气锂的丰度７Ｌｉ／Ｈ＝１０－１１（按原子数计）。或［７Ｌｉ］＝ｌｏｇ（７Ｌｉ／Ｈ）＋１２＝１０．它比太阳系原始星云和银河系星际介质钾的丰度要低约两个数量级．因此太阳在它形成之后，其大气锂必定经受了严重衰减．然而年轻的银河疏散星团（如昂星团和英仙ａ星团）中有效温度高于５５００ Ｋ的主序星，其锂丰度都基本是正常的，井末呈现明显的衰减．这充分说明，太阳型恒星锂的衰减主要发生在主序阶段，而非在主序前的演化阶段． 在恒星中，７Ｌｉ是通过核反应７Ｌｉ（ｐ，ａ）４Ｈｅ，而毁坏．上述反应在Ｔ≥ ２．５×１０…     

LAMOST-Kepler视场中富锂巨星表面转动研究

Kepler卫星提供的长时序、高精度的光度观测和郭守敬望远镜(LAMOST)提供的大规模光谱观测为研究恒星表面转动周期与富锂巨星锂丰度关系提供了良好的数据.将LAMOST搜寻到的富锂巨星与Kepler观测交叉,获得了619颗共同源,研究了其中295颗有良好观测数据的富锂巨星的表面转动.在205颗有星震学参数的恒星中提取出14颗恒星的转动周期,其中氦核燃烧星(HeB) 11颗,红巨星支(RGB) 2颗, 1颗演化阶段未确定.本样本中的极富锂巨星(A(Li) 3.3 dex)皆为HeB;对于90颗没有星震学参数的样本因而没有依靠星震学手段确定演化阶段的恒星中,有22颗提取出了自转周期.前者的自转探测率为6.8%,显著高于之前工作中大样本巨星2.08%的探测率.同时,此研究首次从自转周期的角度确认了恒星转动与巨星锂增丰存在相关性,在增丰程度较弱时,自转周期分布比较弥散;强锂增丰的星倾向于快速转动.富锂巨星与极富锂巨星在转动速度随锂丰度的演化上展现了两个序列,在转动-锂丰度图上的A(Li)≈3.3 dex处产生第2个下降序列,或许暗示了两者在形成机制上的不同.极富锂巨星的样本中,随巨星锂增丰程度增强,恒星转速加快.这种相关性为由转动引起的额外混合作为富锂巨星形成的机制提供了支持.     

红团簇巨星元素丰度

基于高分辨率、高信噪比光谱观测资料,分析了１７颗红团簇巨星的５种α元素（Ｍｇ、Ｓｉ、Ｓ、Ｃａ、Ｔｉ）的化学丰度．结果表明,按金属丰度的不同可以将红团簇巨星分为两类：一类为富金属红团簇巨星（［Ｆｅ／Ｈ］≥０．０）;另一类为贫金属丰度红团簇巨星（［Ｆｅ／Ｈ］≤－０．３）．这两类红团簇巨星中的５种α元素均具有随金属丰度变大而增丰的趋势．同时,分析还表明,这两类红团簇巨星的α元素与铁元素的增丰历史可能是同步的．     

恒星锂丰度研究进展

锂是少数几种在大中生成的元素之一,研究锂丰度对于探讨各种元素核合成理论以及星系的早期化学演化规律都具有十分重要的意义,阐述了有关恒星（类太阳星,晕族恒星和主序前得）及星团锂丰度的新近观测结果。介绍了在锂的核合成理论研究方面非局部热动平衡效应的影响及锂在恒星演化中的衰竭机制等理论的研究进展和存在的问题。     

晚型巨星FKCom的射电观测研究

本文作者使用美国ＶＬＡ，对快速目转的晚型巨星ＦＫＣｏｍ在３．６、６、１８、２０厘米波长上进行了射电观测，探测到ｍＪｙ量级的射电辐射，而没有探测到圆偏振。我们用热模型对射电频谱进行了拟合，结果都不成功。当发射体内电子密度为９×１０８ｃｍ－３，温度为５×１０７Ｋ时，半径为１２０Ｒ⊙．可获得较为接近的流量，但１０９量级的电子密度不大可能扩展到如此大的范围。这样的发射体用热模型得到的Ｘ射线光度比Ｅｉｎｓｔｅｉｎ天文台所观测到的值大两个数量级。ＦＫＣｏｍ的射电光度和Ｘ射线光度与ＲＳＣＶｎ双星系统相近，如果ＦＫＣｏｍ的射电发射也是由相对论电子在中等强度的磁场中作加速运动产生的话，则在１０高斯磁场中半径为３Ｒ⊙左右的发射区在相应波段即可达到观测的流量值。     

一些M型巨星的红外观测研究

本文给出一批M型巨星JHK测光结果,在此基础上讨论了M巨星在(J—H)～(H—K)双色图上的分布特点及其有效温度及总辐射能的近似求法,并依据IRAS资料讨论了它们在中远红外双色图上的分布特征。     

Spectroscopy of Giants of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

In this paper we present the first results of the analysis of intermediate resolution (Δλ ～ 3.5 Å) spectra of giants of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy acquired using the ESO NTT telescope. From the deep CCD photometry of Marconi et al. (1998a) we have selected a sample of giants representative of the metallicity spread suggested by the comparison of the colour-magnitude diagram of Sagittarius with those of galactic globular clusters. The spectra have been used to measure radial velocities, to confirm the membership to Sagittarius, and to provide a metallicity estimate by using spectral synthesis techniques. The analyzed stars show a spread in metallicities in the range ?1.0≤ [Fe/H]≤ +0.7, some 0.5 dex more metal-rich than the photometric estimates.     

Fred Hoyle, Red Giants and beyond

The impact of Fred Hoyle's work on the structure and evolution of red giants, particularly his breakthrough contribution with Martin Schwartzschild (1955), is described and assessed. Working with his students in the early 1960s, Hoyle presented new physical ways of understanding some of the approximations used, and results obtained, in that seminal paper. His initial viewpoint on the critical role of the outer surface boundary condition was replaced by a more subtle, if related one, which emphasized the peculiar difficulty of storing much mass outside a dense stellar core. That viewpoint that – low-mass red giants are essentially white dwarfs with a serious mass-storage problem – is still extremely fruitful. Recently, I have extended Hoyle's approach to explain not only many of the structural properties of red giants themselves, but also to link and unify the structures of low-mass stars from the main sequence through both the red giant and horizontal branch phases of evolution. Many aspects of these stars that had remained mysterious for decades have now fallen into place, and some questions have been answered that were not even posed before. With red giants as the simplest example, this recent work emphasizes that stars, in general, may have at least two distinct but very important centres: (i) a geometrical centre, and (ii) a separate nuclear centre, residing in a shell outside a zero-luminosity dense core for example. This two-centre perspective leads to an explicit, analytic, asymptotic theory of low-mass red giant structure. In this theory, there arises a naturally important in situ measure of central compactness: the parameter . That parameter, like others, is derived self-consistently and explicitly, and can be used to show how close a given model's properties are to ultimate asymptotic relationships. The results obtained also imply that the problem of understanding why such stars become red giants is one of anticipating a remarkable yet natural structural bifurcation which occurs in them. In the resulting theory, both the ratio and products like prove to be important, self-consistently derived quantities. Two striking theorems involving such quantities express between them the very essence of red giant behaviour, proving analytically for the first time that stars with dense cores are necessarily (i) extremely luminous, and (ii) very large. Perhaps the most astonishingly unexpected single result is that for the very value Nature provides for the relevant nuclear energy-generating temperature exponent (CNO's η=15), ρ_sh and behave in a well-defined, precisely inverse manner. This emphasizes that the internal behaviour of such stars is definitely anti-homologous rather than homologous, thus showing how very unfortunate the term `shell homology' is. Finally, I sketch a viewpoint which (i) links the structural and evolutionary behaviour of stars from the main-sequence through horizontal branch phases of evolution, and also (ii) has implications for post-main-sequence developments in more massive stars. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A Review to the Studies of Lithium-Rich Giants

Lithium (Li) is one of the most important light elements that was primordially synthesized in the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). It is also an element that confused astrophysicists for decades, as its observed abundance often contradicts with the theoretical prediction in many different types of celestial objects. Li-rich giant stars are such objects. Their atmospheres contain anomaly high Li abundance than that expected by the standard stellar evolution model. Although the first Li-rich giant star was discovered almost 40 years ago, their origin is still being debated. With the launch of massive spectroscopic survey program such as the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopy Telescope (LAMOST) survey, the extending of available asteroseismology data from space satellites (such as Kepler), and the developments of data-driven techniques, breakthroughs have been archived in the field of Li-rich studies. In this paper, we review the progress that was made during the past four decades, and present our up-to-date understanding to Li-rich giant stars.     

Non-Spherical Dust Grains in the Envelopes of Late-Type Giants

Effects of the grain shape on circumstellar dust dynamics and polarization of stellar radiation are analyzed. The grains are modeled by rotating prolate and oblate spheroids. It is shown that an asymmetry of the geometry of light scattering by non-spherical particles results in a component of the radiation pressure force perpendicular to the wave-vector of incident light. For silicate spheroids, this component can exceed 20 % of . For small metallic grains, the radiation pressure force for a spheroid can be 5–10 times greater than that for a sphere of the same volume. A simple light scattering consideration demonstrates that the distinction in the scattering geometry of aligned non-spherical grains can explain the observed wavelength variations of the positional angle of polarization. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Atmospheric Thermal Structure of a Sample of M Type Giants

Vibrational temperatures in the atmospheres of nine M type giants of luminosity class III and subtypes M2-M8 located in the Galactic plane have been determined from the γ band system of the TiO molecule. The relationship between T _exc and T _eff has been established in agreement with the chosen T _eff calibration scale. The deviation of T _exc with recspect to T _eff for our stars has been used as an indicator of the depth of the atmospheric layers in which the molecular bands are formed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Composition Differences Between Globular Cluster and Halo Field Giants

Low metallicity (−3 <=[Fe/H] < = −1) halo field giants exhibit the expected correlation of Na and Mg abundances, based on the assumption that Na is produced in the same nucleosynthetic sites as are the alpha elements, confirming a result noted by Sneden (1998). On the other hand, giants in at least some globular clusters (especially M13, but also M15 and NGC 6752) do not exhibit the Mg vs Na correlation found among halo field giants (Hanson et al., 1998). The very large [Na/Fe]-ratios and widely scattered [Mg/Fe]-ratios found among M13 giants depend, on the average, on evolutionary state and are probably induced by deep mixing of stellar envelopes through the CNO hydrogen-burning shell. Why M13 (and M15 and NGC 6752) giants should experience deep mixing whereas field halo giants in the same evolutionary state mix not at all is an anomaly unexplained by current theories of stellar evolution. By contrast, giants in the outer halo cluster NGC 7006 show little evidence of deep mixing (Kraft et al., 1998). These differences in the degree of deep mixing among stars in related, but different, stellar populations may be connected to the so-called `second parameter effect'. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.