Asymmetries in the spectral lines of evolved halo stars

We do an initial reconnaissance of asymmetries of spectral lines in metal-poor field stars using high-resolution observations of four red horizontal-branch and 11 red giant branch stars taken with the coude spectrograph at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. We find that (1) the shapes of the line bisectors for metal-poor stars hotter than 4100 K mimic the well-known C shape of bisectors for solar-metallicity stars on the cool side of the granulation boundary while (2) metal-poor stars cooler than 4100 K, or higher up the red giant branch than M _V = -1.5, show bisectors with a reversed-C shape, similar to those for solar-metallicity stars on the hot side of the granulation boundary and similar to the reversed-C shape found in a previous study for the M-type supergiant Betelgeuse. The well-documented radial-velocity jitter of high-luminosity stars and the line bisector characteristics vary in concert up the red giant branch; both phenomena are probably signatures of large convection cells.