Abstract
Carbon and oxygen are key tracers of the Galactic chemical evolution; in particular, a reported upturn in [C/O] towards decreasing [O/H] in metal-poor halo stars could be a signature of nucleosynthesis by massive Population III stars. We reanalyse carbon, oxygen, and iron abundances in 39 metal-poor turn-off stars. For the first time, we take into account 3D hydrodynamic effects together with departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) when determining both the stellar parameters and the elemental abundances, by deriving effective temperatures from 3D non-LTE Hβ profiles, surface gravities from Gaia parallaxes, iron abundances from 3D LTE Fe II equivalent widths, and carbon and oxygen abundances from 3D non-LTE C I and O I equivalent widths. We find that [C/Fe] stays flat with [Fe/H], whereas [O/Fe] increases linearly up to 0.75 dex with decreasing [Fe/H] down to −3.0 dex. Therefore [C/O] monotonically decreases towards decreasing [C/H], in contrast to previous findings, mainly because the non-LTE effects for O I at low [Fe/H] are weaker with our improved calculations.
Highlights
Owing to their different formation sites with different production timescales, the abundance ratios of carbon, oxygen, and iron are key tracers of the chemical evolution of our Galaxy (Tinsley 1979)
Carbon and oxygen are key tracers of the Galactic chemical evolution; in particular, a reported upturn in [C/O] towards decreasing [O/H] in metal-poor halo stars could be a signature of nucleosynthesis by massive Population III stars
We take into account 3D hydrodynamic effects together with departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) when determining both the stellar parameters and the elemental abundances, by deriving effective temperatures from 3D non-LTE Hβ profiles, surface gravities from Gaia parallaxes, iron abundances from 3D LTE Fe ii equivalent widths, and carbon and oxygen abundances from 3D non-LTE C i and O i equivalent widths
Summary
Owing to their different formation sites with different production timescales, the abundance ratios of carbon, oxygen, and iron are key tracers of the chemical evolution of our Galaxy (Tinsley 1979). −1.5, the [C/O]1 against [O/H] trend has been studied in detail by Akerman et al (2004) and Fabbian et al (2009). They found that [C/O] decreases with decreasing [O/H], down to around [O/H] ≈ −1.0. This is qualitatively consistent with what was found more recently by Nissen et al (2014) in the less metal-poor halo as well as in thick-disk stars with [Fe/H]. −1.5; there, [C/O] decreases from 0.0 dex at [O/H] ≈ 0.2, down to −0.45 dex at [O/H] ≈ −0.4
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