Bibcode
Shetrone, M.; Tayar, Jamie; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Somers, Garrett; Pinsonneault, Marc H.; Holtzman, Jon A.; Hasselquist, Sten; Masseron, T.; Mészáros, Szabolcs; Jönsson, Henrik; Hawkins, Keith; Sobeck, Jennifer; Zamora, O.; García-Hernández, D. A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 872, Issue 2, article id. 137, 11 pp. (2019).
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2
2019
Journal
Citations
52
Refereed citations
47
Description
Internal mixing on the giant branch is an important process which
affects the evolution of stars and the chemical evolution of the galaxy.
While several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this mixing,
better empirical constraints are necessary. Here, we use [C/N]
abundances in 26,097 evolved stars from the SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2 Data
Release 14 to trace mixing and extra mixing in old field giants with
‑1.7 < [Fe/H] < 0.1. We show that the APOGEE [C/N] ratios
before any dredge-up occurs are metallicity dependent, but that the
change in [C/N] at the first dredge-up is metallicity independent for
stars above [Fe/H] ∼ ‑1. We identify the position of the red
giant branch (RGB) bump as a function of metallicity, note that a
metallicity-dependent extra mixing episode takes place for
low-metallicity stars ([Fe/H] <‑0.4) 0.14 dex in log g above
the bump, and confirm that this extra mixing is stronger at low
metallicity, reaching Δ[C/N] = 0.58 dex at [Fe/H] = ‑1.4. We
show evidence for further extra mixing on the upper giant branch, well
above the bump, among the stars with [Fe/H] <‑1.0. This upper
giant branch mixing is stronger in the more metal-poor stars, reaching
0.38 dex in [C/N] for each 1.0 dex in log g. The APOGEE [C/N] ratios for
red clump (RC) stars are significantly higher than for stars at the tip
of the RGB, suggesting additional mixing processes occur during the
helium flash or that unknown abundance zero points for C and N may exist
among the RC sample. Finally, because of extra mixing, we note that
current empirical calibrations between [C/N] ratios and ages cannot be
naively extrapolated for use in low-metallicity stars specifically for
those above the bump in the luminosity function.
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