Abundance–age relations with red clump stars in open clusters

Abstract

Context. Precise chemical abundances coupled with reliable ages are key ingredients to understanding the chemical history of our Galaxy. Open clusters (OCs) are useful for this purpose because they provide ages with good precision. Aims. The aim of this work is to investigate the relation between different chemical abundance ratios and age traced by red clump (RC) stars in OCs. Methods. We analyzed a large sample of 209 reliable members in 47 OCs with available high-resolution spectroscopy. We applied a differential line-by-line analysis, performing a comprehensive chemical study of 25 chemical species. This sample is among the largest samples of OCs homogeneously characterized in terms of atmospheric parameters, detailed chemistry, and age. Results. In our metallicity range (−0.2 < [M/H] < +0.2) we find that while most Fe-peak and α elements show a flat dependence on age, the s-process elements show a decreasing trend with increasing age with a remarkable knee at 1 Gyr. For Ba, Ce, Y, Mo, and Zr, we find a plateau at young ages (< 1 Gyr). We investigate the relations between all possible combinations among the computed chemical species and age. We find 19 combinations with significant slopes, including [Y/Mg] and [Y/Al]. The ratio [Ba/α] shows the most significant correlation. Conclusions. We find that the [Y/Mg] relation found in the literature using solar twins is compatible with the one found here in the solar neighborhood. The age–abundance relations in clusters at large distances(d > 1 kpc) show larger scatter than those in clusters in the solar neighborhood, particularly in the outer disk. We conclude that, in addition to pure nucleosynthetic arguments, the complexity of the chemical space introduced by the Galactic dynamics must be taken into account in order to understand these relations, especially outside of the local bubble.