On the elemental abundance and isotopic mixture of mercury in HgMn stars

¹ Atomic Astrophysics, Lund Observatory, Lund University, Box 43, 22100, Lund, Sweden
² European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile

Corresponding author: L. Dolk, linus.dolk@astro.lu.se

Received: 2 July 2002
Accepted: 13 February 2003

Abstract

Optical region spectra of 31 HgMn stars have been studied for the abundance and isotope mixture of mercury. In the course of the investigation the lines  λ4358 and λ λ3984,6149 have been studied, with abundances established for all three lines in several HgMn stars. The mercury isotope mixture has been determined from high resolution spectra of the λ3984 line. Possible signs of an ionization anomaly have been detected by the comparison of the abundance derived from the line and the lines in seven of the observed HgMn stars. A possible correlation of the mercury abundance with has been detected. Possible signs of a weak anticorrelation of the manganese and mercury abundance in HgMn stars have been found, which could be interpreted as a sign of inhomogeneous surface distribution of these elements. For a number of the HgMn stars in this study the mercury abundance and isotope mixture are reported for the first time.