BOO-1137 - An extremely metal-poor star in the ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal galaxy botes i

We present high-resolution (R ∼40,000), high-signal-to-noise ratio (20-90) spectra of an extremely metal-poor giant star Boo-1137 in the "ultra-faint" dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) Boötes I, absolute magnitude M _V ∼ -6.3. We derive an iron abundance of [Fe/H] = -3.7, making this the most metal-poor star as yet identified in an ultra-faint dSph. Our derived effective temperature and gravity are consistent with its identification as a red giant in Boötes I. Abundances for a further 15 elements have also been determined. Comparison of the relative abundances, [X/Fe], with those of the extremely metal-poor red giants of the Galactic halo shows that Boo-1137 is "normal" with respect to C and N, the odd-Z elements Na and Al, the iron-peak elements, and the neutron-capture elements Sr and Ba, in comparison with the bulk of the Milky Way halo population having [Fe/H] ≲-3.0. The α-elements Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti are all higher by Δ[X/Fe] ∼0.2 than the average halo values. Monte Carlo analysis indicates that Δ[α/Fe] values this large are expected with a probability ∼0.02. The elemental abundance pattern in Boo-1137 suggests inhomogeneous chemical evolution, consistent with the wide internal spread in iron abundances we previously reported. The similarity of most of the Boo-1137 relative abundances with respect to halo values, and the fact that the α-elements are all offset by a similar small amount from the halo averages, points to the same underlying galaxy-scale stellar initial mass function, but that Boo-1137 likely originated in a star-forming region where the abundances reflect either poor mixing of supernova (SN) ejecta, or poor sampling of the SN progenitor mass range, or both.