Abundances of Na, Mg and Al in stars with giant planets

¹ Centro de Astronomia e Astrofísica da Universidade de Lisboa, Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-018 Lisboa, Portugal e-mail: Nuno.Santos@oal.ul.pt
² Observatoire de Genève, 51 ch. des Maillettes, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
³ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Received: 24 January 2005
Accepted: 31 March 2005

Abstract

We present Na, Mg and Al abundances in a set of 98 stars with known giant planets, and in a comparison sample of 41 “single” stars. The results show that the [X/H] abundances (with X = Na, Mg and Al) are, on average, higher in stars with giant planets, a result similar to the one found for iron. However, we did not find any strong difference in the [X/Fe] ratios, for a fixed [Fe/H], between the two samples of stars in the region where the samples overlap. The data was used to study the Galactic chemical evolution trends for Na, Mg and Al and to discuss the possible influence of planets on this evolution. The results, similar to those obtained by other authors, show that the [X/Fe] ratios all decrease as a function of metallicity up to solar values. While for Mg and Al this trend then becomes relatively constant, for Na we find indications of an upturn up to [Fe/H] values close to 0.25 dex. For metallicities above this value the [Na/Fe] becomes constant.