TY - JOUR
T1 - Chemical abundances of new member stars in the tucana II dwarf galaxy
AU - Chiti, Anirudh
AU - Frebel, Anna
AU - Ji, Alexander P.
AU - Jerjen, Helmut
AU - Kim, Dongwon
AU - Norris, John E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/4/10
Y1 - 2018/4/10
N2 - We present chemical abundance measurements for seven stars with metallicities ranging from Fe/H] =-3.3 to [Fe/H] =-2.4 in the Tucana II ultra-faint dwarf galaxy (UFD), based on high-resolution spectra obtained with the MIKE spectrograph on the 6.5 m Magellan-Clay Telescope. For three stars, we present detailed chemical abundances for the first time. Of those, two stars are newly discovered members of Tucana II and were selected as probable members from deep narrowband photometry of the Tucana II UFD taken with the SkyMapper telescope. This result demonstrates the potential for photometrically identifying members of dwarf galaxy systems based on chemical composition. One new star was selected from the membership catalog of Walker et al. The other four stars in our sample have been reanalyzed, following additional observations. Overall, six stars have chemical abundances that are characteristic of the UFD stellar population. The seventh star shows chemical abundances that are discrepant from the other Tucana II members and an atypical, higher strontium abundance than what is expected for typical UFD stars. While unlikely, its strontium abundance raises the possibility that it may be a foreground metal-poor halo star with the same systemic velocity as Tucana II. If we were to exclude this star, Tucana II would satisfy the criteria to be a surviving first galaxy. Otherwise, this star implies that Tucana II has likely experienced somewhat extended chemical evolution.
AB - We present chemical abundance measurements for seven stars with metallicities ranging from Fe/H] =-3.3 to [Fe/H] =-2.4 in the Tucana II ultra-faint dwarf galaxy (UFD), based on high-resolution spectra obtained with the MIKE spectrograph on the 6.5 m Magellan-Clay Telescope. For three stars, we present detailed chemical abundances for the first time. Of those, two stars are newly discovered members of Tucana II and were selected as probable members from deep narrowband photometry of the Tucana II UFD taken with the SkyMapper telescope. This result demonstrates the potential for photometrically identifying members of dwarf galaxy systems based on chemical composition. One new star was selected from the membership catalog of Walker et al. The other four stars in our sample have been reanalyzed, following additional observations. Overall, six stars have chemical abundances that are characteristic of the UFD stellar population. The seventh star shows chemical abundances that are discrepant from the other Tucana II members and an atypical, higher strontium abundance than what is expected for typical UFD stars. While unlikely, its strontium abundance raises the possibility that it may be a foreground metal-poor halo star with the same systemic velocity as Tucana II. If we were to exclude this star, Tucana II would satisfy the criteria to be a surviving first galaxy. Otherwise, this star implies that Tucana II has likely experienced somewhat extended chemical evolution.
KW - Galaxies: Dwarf
KW - Galaxies: Individual (TucII)
KW - Local Group
KW - Stars: Abundances Supporting material: Machine-readable tables
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045540928&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/aab4fc
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/aab4fc
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 857
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1
M1 - 74
ER -