Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21915209j&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #152.09
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Open clusters, whose ages and distances can be precisely determined, are useful probes of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way disk. The sample sizes of clusters subject to homogeneous analysis of high resolution spectra have grown in recent years, and increased attention has turned to measuring the abundances of neutron capture elements. The relative abundances of r-process elements (e.g., europium) to s-process elements (e.g., barium, lanthanum and zirconium) in cluster stars reveal the relative contributions of Type II supernovae and low-mass AGB stars to the chemical evolution of the galactic disk. A recent study of cluster s-process element abundances has revealed a surprising trend of increasing s-process element abundance ([s/Fe]) with decreasing cluster age, at odds with current s-process yield predictions (D'Orazi et al. 2009, Maiorca et al. 2011). We have undertaken an analysis of Zr, Ba, La, and Eu abundances in 17 open clusters based on high resolution optical spectra. The sample spans 700 Myr to 10 Gyr in age and Rgc 7-22 kpc in galactocentric distance, allowing for the exploration of neutron capture [x/Fe] ratios as a function of age and location in the disk. Preliminary results confirm the trend of enhanced [s/Fe] with decreasing cluster age found by other studies, though with a weaker correlation. Here we present the latest results of this analysis, including newly-determined abundances for the r-process element Eu for an expanded cluster sample that includes outer disk objects. This research is supported by a National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to HRJ under award AST-0901919.
Friel Eileen D.
Jacobson Heather R.
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