Bibcode
Marino, A. F.; Milone, A. P.; Piotto, G.; Villanova, S.; Bedin, L. R.; Bellini, A.; Renzini, A.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 505, Issue 3, 2009, pp.1099-1113
Advertised on:
10
2009
Journal
Citations
249
Refereed citations
212
Description
We present a chemical abundance analysis based on high resolution UVES
spectra of seventeen bright giant stars in the Globular Cluster (GC) M
22. We obtained an average iron abundance of [Fe/H] = -1.76±0.02
(internal errors only) and an α enhancement of 0.36±0.04
(internal errors only). Na and O, and Al and O follow the well known
anticorrelations found in many other GCs. We identified two groups of
stars with significantly different abundances of the s-process elements
Y, Zr, and Ba. The relative numbers of the two group members are very
similar to the ratio of the number of stars in the two sub giant
branches (SGB) of M 22. Y and Ba abundances do not correlate with Na, O,
and Al. The s-element rich stars are also richer in iron and have higher
Ca abundances. The results from high resolution spectra were confirmed
by analyses of lower resolution GIRAFFE spectra of fourteen additional M
22 stars. The analyses of the GIRAFFE spectra also show that the Eu - a
pure r-process element - abundance is not related to the iron content.
We discuss the chemical abundance pattern of M 22 stars in the context
of GC multiple stellar populations phenomenon.
Based on data collected at the European Southern Observatory with the
VLT-UT2, Paranal, Chile.