The [Y/Mg] clock works for evolved solar metallicity stars⋆
1 Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC). Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
e-mail: ditte@phys.au.dk
2 School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
3 California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, MC 249-17, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
4 Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, 2333CA Leiden, The Netherlands
5 Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Received: 3 July 2017
Accepted: 10 July 2017
Aims. Previously [Y/Mg] has been proven to be an age indicator for solar twins. Here, we investigate if this relation also holds for helium-core-burning stars of solar metallicity.
Methods. High resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) spectroscopic data of stars in the helium-core-burning phase have been obtained with the FIES spectrograph on the NOT 2.56 m telescope and the HIRES spectrograph on the Keck I 10 m telescope. They have been analyzed to determine the chemical abundances of four open clusters with close to solar metallicity; NGC 6811, NGC 6819, M 67 and NGC 188. The abundances are derived from equivalent widths of spectral lines using ATLAS9 model atmospheres with parameters determined from the excitation and ionization balance of Fe lines. Results from asteroseismology and binary studies were used as priors on the atmospheric parameters, where especially the log g is determined to much higher precision than what is possible with spectroscopy.
Results. It is confirmed that the four open clusters are close to solar metallicity and they follow the [Y/Mg] vs. age trend previously found for solar twins.
Conclusions. The [Y/Mg] vs. age clock also works for giant stars in the helium-core burning phase, which vastly increases the possibilities to estimate the age of stars not only in the solar neighborhood, but in large parts of the Galaxy, due to the brighter nature of evolved stars compared to dwarfs.
Key words: stars: abundances / stars: fundamental parameters / stars: late-type / Galaxy: evolution / open clusters and associations: general
Based on spectroscopic observations made with two telescopes: the Nordic Optical Telescope operated by NOTSA at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (La Palma, Spain) of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and the Keck I Telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory (Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA) operated by the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
© ESO, 2017