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- Bertelli Motta, C., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO Survey : evidence of atomic diffusion in M67?
- 2018
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In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press. - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 478:1, s. 425-438
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- 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 cluster M67 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 the measured 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.
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2. |
- Fu, X., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO Survey : Lithium enrichment histories of the Galactic thick and thin disc
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP SCIENCES S A. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 610
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Lithium abundance in most of the warm metal-poor main sequence stars shows a constarnt plateau (A(Li) similar to 2.2 dex) and then the upper envelope of the lithium vs. metallicity distribution increases as we approach solar metallicity. Meteorites, which carry information about the chemical composition of the interstellar medium (ISM) at the solar system formation time, show a lithium abundance A(Li) similar to 3.26 dex. This pattern reflects the Li enrichment history of the ISM during the Galaxy lifetime. After the initial Li production in big bang nucleosynthesis, the sources of the enrichment include asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, low-mass red giants, novae, type II supernovae, and Galactic cosmic rays. The total amount of enriched Li is sensitive to the relative contribution of these sources. Thus different Li enrichment histories are expected in the Galactic thick and thin disc. We investigate the main sequence stars observed with UVES in Gaia-ESO Survey iDR4 catalogue and find a Li[alpha/Fe] anticorrelation independent of [Fe/H], T-eff, and log(g). Since in stellar evolution different alpha enhancements at the same metallicity do not lead to a measurable Li abundance change, the anticorrelation indicates that more Li is produced during the Galactic thin disc phase than during the Galactic thick disc phase. We also find a correlation between the abundance of Li and s-process elements Ba and Y, and they both decrease above the solar metallicity, which can be explained in the framework of the adopted Galactic chemical evolution models.
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3. |
- Lagarde, N., et al.
(author)
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The Gaia-ESO Survey : impact of extra mixing on C and N abundances of giant stars
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP SCIENCES S A. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 621
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context: The Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey using FLAMES at the VLT has obtained high-resolution UVES spectra for a large number of giant stars, allowing a determination of the abundances of the key chemical elements carbon and nitrogen at their surface. The surface abundances of these chemical species are known to change in stars during their evolution on the red giant branch (RGB) after the first dredge-up episode, as a result of the extra mixing phenomena.Aims: We investigate the effects of thermohaline mixing on C and N abundances using the first comparison between the Gaia-ESO survey [C/N] determinations with simulations of the observed fields using a model of stellar population synthesis.Methods: We explore the effects of thermohaline mixing on the chemical properties of giants through stellar evolutionary models computed with the stellar evolution code STAREVOL. We include these stellar evolution models in the Besancon Galaxy model to simulate the [C/N] distributions determined from the UVES spectra of the Gaia-ESO survey and to compare them with the observations.Results: Theoretical predictions including the effect of thermohaline mixing are in good agreement with the observations. However, the field stars in the Gaia-ESO survey with C and N abundance measurements have a metallicity close to solar, where the efficiency of thermohaline mixing is not very large. The C and N abundances derived by the Gaia-ESO survey in open and globular clusters clearly show the impact of thermohaline mixing at low metallicity, which explains the [C/N] value observed in lower mass and older giant stars. Using independent observations of carbon isotopic ratio in clump field stars and open clusters, we also confirm that thermohaline mixing should be taken into account to explain the behaviour of C-12/C-13 as a function of stellar age.Conclusions: Overall, the current model including thermohaline mixing is able to reproduce very well the C and N abundances over the whole metallicity range investigated by the Gaia-ESO survey data.
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4. |
- Tinetti, G., et al.
(author)
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A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL
- 2018
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In: Experimental Astronomy. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0922-6435 .- 1572-9508. ; 46:1, s. 135-209
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.
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5. |
- Franchini, Mariagrazia, et al.
(author)
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Gaia-ESO Survey : INTRIGOSS-A New Library of High-resolution Synthetic Spectra
- 2018
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 862:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present a high-resolution synthetic spectral library, INTRIGOSS, designed for studying FGK stars. The library is based on atmosphere models computed with specified individual element abundances via ATLAS12 code. Normalized SPectra (NSPs) and surface Flux SPectra (FSP) in the wavelength range 4830-5400 angstrom were computed with the SPECTRUM code. INTRIGOSS uses the solar composition of Grevesse et al. and four [alpha/Fe] abundance ratios, and consists of 15,232 spectra. The synthetic spectra are computed with astrophysical gf-values derived by comparing synthetic predictions with a solar spectrum of very high signal-to-noise ratio and the UVES-U580 spectra of five cool giants. The validity of the NSPs is assessed by using the UVES-U580 spectra of 2212 stars observed in the framework of the Gaia-ESO (European Southern Observatory) survey and characterized by homogeneous and accurate atmospheric parameter values and by detailed chemical compositions. The greater accuracy of NSPs with respect to spectra from the synthetic spectral libraries AMBRE, GES_Grid, PHOENIX, C14, and B17 is demonstrated by evaluating the consistency of the predictions of the different libraries for stars in the UVES-U580 sample. The validity of the FSPs is checked by comparing their prediction with both the observed spectral energy distribution (SED) and spectral indices. The comparison of FSPs with SEDs derived from the libraries ELODIE, INDO-U.S., and MILES indicates that the former reproduce the observed flux distributions within a few per cent and without any systematic trend. The good agreement between observational and synthetic Lick/SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) indices shows that the predicted blanketing of FSPs well reproduces the observed one, thus confirming the reliability of INTRIGOSS FSPs.
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