Abundances of red clump & RGB stars with APOGEE

DOI

Internal mixing on the giant branch is an important process which affects the evolution of stars and the chemical evolution of the galaxy. While several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this mixing, better empirical constraints are necessary. Here, we use [C/N] abundances in 26097 evolved stars from the SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2 DR14 to trace mixing and extra mixing in old field giants with -1.7<[Fe/H]<0.1. We show that the APOGEE [C/N] ratios before any dredge-up occurs are metallicity dependent, but that the change in [C/N] at the first dredge-up is metallicity independent for stars above [Fe/H]~-1. We identify the position of the red giant branch (RGB) bump as a function of metallicity, note that a metallicity-dependent extra mixing episode takes place for low-metallicity stars ([Fe/H]{<}-0.4) 0.14dex in logg above the bump, and confirm that this extra mixing is stronger at low metallicity, reaching {Delta}[C/N]=0.58dex at [Fe/H]=-1.4. We show evidence for further extra mixing on the upper giant branch, well above the bump, among the stars with [Fe/H]{<}-1.0. This upper giant branch mixing is stronger in the more metal-poor stars, reaching 0.38 dex in [C/N] for each 1.0dex in logg. The APOGEE [C/N] ratios for red clump (RC) stars are significantly higher than for stars at the tip of the RGB, suggesting additional mixing processes occur during the helium flash or that unknown abundance zero points for C and N may exist among the RC sample. Finally, because of extra mixing, we note that current empirical calibrations between [C/N] ratios and ages cannot be naively extrapolated for use in low-metallicity stars specifically for those above the bump in the luminosity function.

Cone search capability for table J/ApJ/872/137/table1 (data)

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.18720137
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/872/137
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/872/137
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/872/137
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/872/137
Provenance
Creator Shetrone M.; Tayar J.; Johnson J.A.; Somers G.; Pinsonneault M.H.,Holtzman J.A.; Hasselquist S.; Masseron T.; Meszaros S.; Jonsson H.,Hawkins K.; Sobeck J.; Zamora O.; Garcia-Hernandez D.A.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2020
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy