An Abundance Analysis of Red Giant Stars in the Retrograde Galactic Globular Cluster NGC 3201: Implications for Cluster Formation Scenarios

Details An Abundance Analysis of Red Giant Stars in the Retrograde Galactic Globular Cluster NGC 3201: Implications for Cluster Formation Scenarios An Abundance Analysis of Red Giant Stars in the Retrograde Galactic Globular Cluster NGC 3201: Implications for Cluster Formation Scenarios

Jan 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21715314s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #153.14; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011

Physics

Scientific paper

Globular clusters have long been central to the study of Galactic Chemical Evolution. They serve as laboratories for stellar physics, evolution, and nucleosynthesis as well as representing fossil remnants of Galactic assembly processes. Our work addresses two recent areas of interest: globular clusters as accreted objects and globular clusters as hosts for multiple stellar populations. The globular cluster NGC 3201 is a curious object on a retrograde orbit. Some studies suggest that it contains stars of more than one metallicity, a property seen only in the peculiar globular cluster Omega Centauri. Both properties hint at an extra-Galactic origin. We present an elemental abundance pattern for NGC 3201 based on high resolution, high signal-to-noise spectra of red giant stars. We present abundance patterns of similar stars from the globular cluster M5 for comparison. Interpretation of our results is complicated by the discovery that at least two of our giants are variable stars. Though we can derive adequate stellar parameter solutions for both stars in every stage of variability and heavy element abundances do not change with the stellar phase, the abundances of the light elements O, Na, Mg, and Al are extremely unstable and vary greatly. Our inability to correctly model light element line formation in the atmosphere of variable red giant stars has significant implications for studies of star to star abundance variations in exactly these elements in globular clusters, which rely on stars at the same evolutionary stage as the variables in NGC 3201.

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