Oxygen abundances in the galactic bulge

We present preliminary oxygen abundances in a sample of four red-giants belonging to the bulge population. The abundances were derived from OH molecular transitions in the infra-red high-resolution spectra obtained with the Phoenix spectrograph on Gemini South. The target stars were taken from the previous study by McWilliam & Rich (1994) and selected in order to span a range in [Fe/H] from -1.0 to +0.5. Our oxygen results are found to be enhanced and fall above the Milky Way disk trend; in agreement with the high abundances obtained previously for other α-elements. It is important to note, however, that the enhanced OH abundances obtained here are based upon stellar parameters taken directly from McWilliam & Rich (1994). Significant revisions to these published values are found more recently in McWilliam & Rich (2003) Such revisions would result in derived oxygen abundances that are systematically lower and perhaps in better agreement with the Milky Way trend. The conclusion is that further efforts are needed in order to better define the stellar parameters for the target stars, as they are crucial in order to decide the important issue of whether the oxygen abundances are enhanced in the bulge K-giants, as we find here. Or, on the other hand, if they follow the trend defined for the Milky Way disk.