The elderly among the oldest: new evidence for extremely metal-poor RR Lyrae stars

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: D'Orazi, Valentina, Braga, Vittorio F., Bono, Giuseppe, Fabrizio, Michele, Fiorentino, Giuliana, Storm, Nicholas, Pietrinferni, Adriano, Sneden, Christopher, Sanchez-Benavente, Manuel, Monelli, Matteo, Sestito, Federico, Jönsson, Henrik, Buder, Sven, Bobrick, Alexey, Iorio, Giuliano, Matsunaga, Noriyuki, Marconi, Marcella, Marengo, Massimo, Martinez-Vazquez, Clara E., Mullen, Joseph, Takayama, Masaki, Testa, Vincenzo, Cusano, Felice, Crestani, Juliana
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author D'Orazi, Valentina
Braga, Vittorio F.
Bono, Giuseppe
Fabrizio, Michele
Fiorentino, Giuliana
Storm, Nicholas
Pietrinferni, Adriano
Sneden, Christopher
Sanchez-Benavente, Manuel
Monelli, Matteo
Sestito, Federico
Jönsson, Henrik
Buder, Sven
Bobrick, Alexey
Iorio, Giuliano
Matsunaga, Noriyuki
Marconi, Marcella
Marengo, Massimo
Martinez-Vazquez, Clara E.
Mullen, Joseph
Takayama, Masaki
Testa, Vincenzo
Cusano, Felice
Crestani, Juliana
author_facet D'Orazi, Valentina
Braga, Vittorio F.
Bono, Giuseppe
Fabrizio, Michele
Fiorentino, Giuliana
Storm, Nicholas
Pietrinferni, Adriano
Sneden, Christopher
Sanchez-Benavente, Manuel
Monelli, Matteo
Sestito, Federico
Jönsson, Henrik
Buder, Sven
Bobrick, Alexey
Iorio, Giuliano
Matsunaga, Noriyuki
Marconi, Marcella
Marengo, Massimo
Martinez-Vazquez, Clara E.
Mullen, Joseph
Takayama, Masaki
Testa, Vincenzo
Cusano, Felice
Crestani, Juliana
contents We performed a detailed spectroscopic analysis of three extremely metal-poor RR Lyrae stars, exploring uncharted territories at these low metallicities for this class of stars. Using high-resolution spectra acquired with HARPS-N at TNG, UVES at VLT, and PEPSI at LBT, and employing Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) spectral synthesis calculations, we provide abundance measurements for Fe, Al, Mg, Ca, Ti, Mn, and Sr. Our findings indicate that the stars have metallicities of [Fe/H] = -3.40 \pm 0.05, -3.28 \pm 0.02, and -2.77 \pm 0.05 for HD 331986, DO Hya, and BPS CS 30317-056, respectively. Additionally, we derived their kinematic and dynamical properties to gain insights into their origins. Interestingly, the kinematics of one star (HD 331986) is consistent with the Galactic disc, while the others exhibit Galactic halo kinematics, albeit with distinct chemical signatures. We compared the [Al/Fe] and [Mg/Mn] ratios of the current targets with recent literature estimates to determine whether these stars were either accreted or formed in situ, finding that the adopted chemical diagnostics are ineffective at low metallicities ([Fe/H] $\lesssim -$1.5). Finally, the established horizontal branch evolutionary models, indicating that these stars arrive at hotter temperatures on the Zero-Age Horizontal Branch (ZAHB) and then transition into RR Lyrae stars as they evolve, fully support the existence of such low-metallicity RR Lyrae stars. As a consequence, we can anticipate detecting more of them when larger samples of spectra become available from upcoming extensive observational campaigns.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_05807
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The elderly among the oldest: new evidence for extremely metal-poor RR Lyrae stars
D'Orazi, Valentina
Braga, Vittorio F.
Bono, Giuseppe
Fabrizio, Michele
Fiorentino, Giuliana
Storm, Nicholas
Pietrinferni, Adriano
Sneden, Christopher
Sanchez-Benavente, Manuel
Monelli, Matteo
Sestito, Federico
Jönsson, Henrik
Buder, Sven
Bobrick, Alexey
Iorio, Giuliano
Matsunaga, Noriyuki
Marconi, Marcella
Marengo, Massimo
Martinez-Vazquez, Clara E.
Mullen, Joseph
Takayama, Masaki
Testa, Vincenzo
Cusano, Felice
Crestani, Juliana
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We performed a detailed spectroscopic analysis of three extremely metal-poor RR Lyrae stars, exploring uncharted territories at these low metallicities for this class of stars. Using high-resolution spectra acquired with HARPS-N at TNG, UVES at VLT, and PEPSI at LBT, and employing Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (NLTE) spectral synthesis calculations, we provide abundance measurements for Fe, Al, Mg, Ca, Ti, Mn, and Sr. Our findings indicate that the stars have metallicities of [Fe/H] = -3.40 \pm 0.05, -3.28 \pm 0.02, and -2.77 \pm 0.05 for HD 331986, DO Hya, and BPS CS 30317-056, respectively. Additionally, we derived their kinematic and dynamical properties to gain insights into their origins. Interestingly, the kinematics of one star (HD 331986) is consistent with the Galactic disc, while the others exhibit Galactic halo kinematics, albeit with distinct chemical signatures. We compared the [Al/Fe] and [Mg/Mn] ratios of the current targets with recent literature estimates to determine whether these stars were either accreted or formed in situ, finding that the adopted chemical diagnostics are ineffective at low metallicities ([Fe/H] $\lesssim -$1.5). Finally, the established horizontal branch evolutionary models, indicating that these stars arrive at hotter temperatures on the Zero-Age Horizontal Branch (ZAHB) and then transition into RR Lyrae stars as they evolve, fully support the existence of such low-metallicity RR Lyrae stars. As a consequence, we can anticipate detecting more of them when larger samples of spectra become available from upcoming extensive observational campaigns.
title The elderly among the oldest: new evidence for extremely metal-poor RR Lyrae stars
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.05807