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Thomas Bensby. Profile photo.

Thomas Bensby

Senior lecturer

Thomas Bensby. Profile photo.

The Gaia-ESO Survey: Evidence of atomic diffusion in M67

Author

  • C. Bertelli Motta
  • A. Pasquali
  • J. Richer
  • G. Michaud
  • M. Salaris
  • A. Bragaglia
  • L. Magrini
  • S. Randich
  • E. K. Grebel
  • V. Adibekyan
  • S. Blanco-Cuaresma
  • A. Drazdauskas
  • X. Fu
  • S. Martell
  • G. Tautvaišiene
  • G. Gilmore
  • E. J. Alfaro
  • T. Bensby
  • E. Flaccomio
  • S. E. Koposov
  • A. J. Korn
  • A. C. Lanzafame
  • R. Smiljanic
  • A. Bayo
  • G. Carraro
  • A. R. Casey
  • M. T. Costado
  • F. Damiani
  • E. Franciosini
  • U. Heiter
  • A. Hourihane
  • P. Jofré
  • C. Lardo
  • J. Lewis
  • L. Monaco
  • L. Morbidelli
  • G. G. Sacco
  • S. G. Sousa
  • C. C. Worley
  • S. Zaggia
Show all

Summary, in English

Investigating the chemical homogeneity of stars born from the same molecular cloud at virtually the same time is very important for our understanding of the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium and with it the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. One major cause of inhomogeneities in the abundances of open clusters is stellar evolution of the cluster members. In this work, we investigate variations in the surface chemical composition of member stars of the old open clusterM67 as a possible consequence of atomic diffusion effects taking place during the main-sequence phase. The abundances used are obtained from high-resolution UVES/FLAMES spectra within the framework of the Gaia-ESO Survey. We find that the surface abundances of stars on the main sequence decrease with increasing mass reaching a minimum at the turn-off. After deepening of the convective envelope in subgiant branch stars, the initial surface abundances are restored.We found themeasured abundances to be consistent with the predictions of stellar evolutionary models for a cluster with the age and metallicity of M67. Our findings indicate that atomic diffusion poses a non-negligible constraint on the achievable precision of chemical tagging methods.

Department/s

  • Lund Observatory - Has been reorganised

Publishing year

2018-07-21

Language

English

Pages

425-438

Publication/Series

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume

478

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Topic

  • Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Keywords

  • Galaxy: Abundances
  • Galaxy: Evolution
  • Stars: Abundances
  • Stars: Evolution

Status

Published

Project

  • Gaia-ESO Survey

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0035-8711