BRIGHT TIMES FOR AN ANCIENT STAR

Abstract

ABSTRACT Field stars of Population II are among the oldest sources in the Galaxy. Most of their solar-type dwarfs are non-single and, given their extreme age, a significant fraction is accompanied by stellar remnants. Here we report the discovery of the bright F7V star 49 Lib as a massive and very metal-rich Population II field blue straggler, along with evidence for a white dwarf as its dark and unseen companion. 49 Lib is known as a relatively fast-rotating, single-lined spectroscopic binary in a 3 year orbit and with an apparent age of about τ ≃ 2.3 Gyr. Its chemistry and kinematics, however, both consistently imply that 49 Lib must be an ancient Population II star at τ ≃ 12 Gyr. With reference to the inclination from the astrometric orbit, leading to a M ⊙ low-mass white dwarf, and in view of the M ⊙ massive, evolved F-type blue straggler star, we demonstrate that 49 Lib must have been the subject of a mostly conservative mass transfer with a near-equal-mass M ≃ 1.06 + 1.00 M ⊙ G-type binary at birth. For its future evolution, we point to the possibility as a progenitor system toward a type Ia supernova. Most importantly, however, we note that the remarkable metal enrichment of 49 Lib at [Mg/H] = +0.23 and [Fe/H] = −0.11 has principally very relevant implications for the early epoch when the Milky Way came into being.