The Fe Group Abundances in the B3 IV Standard ι Herculis Determined from ASTRAL II Observations
Abstract
Iota Herculis is an ultrasharp-lined B3 IV star that historically has been considered as an abundance standard for the early B stars. This star was one of the targets in the HST Treasury Program Advanced Spectral Library II: Hot Stars (ASTRAL II) that produced uninterrupted spectra of high to medium resolution in the region 1150-3100 Å. The abundances for the Fe group elements (Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, & Ni) in ι Her were determined mostly from STIS E140H and E230H (resolving power of 114,000) observations. Measurable lines from the Fe group, except for a very few multiplets of Fe II, III are not found in optical spectra. Whereas the light elements are delivered to the ISM by core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), the Fe group elements are believed to come mostly from low/intermediate mass binaries containing white dwarfs that undergo SNe Ia explosions. A single SNe Ia can deliver 0.5 solar masses of pure Fe (and maybe Mn) to the ISM compared with about 0.07 solar masses from a CCSNe. The HST/STIS data were supplemented with optical spectra obtained at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (resolving power about 60,000). The abundance analysis was carried through with the NLTE code TLUSTY/SYNSPEC (Hubeny & Lanz, ApJ, 439,875,1995). The model parameters adopted for the ι Her are Teff = 17750 ± 250 K, log g = 3.75 ± 0.05 dex, Vturb = 0 km s-1, and v sin i = 5 km s-1. Solar abundances appear to prevail for the lighter elements but the abundances of Fe group elements are 0.3 - 0.7 dex below solar values determined by Grevesse et al. (2010, Ap&SpSci, 328, 179). It appears that ι Her was formed in a region our Galaxy mostly enriched by CCSNe.The authors appreciate support from STScI grants HST-GO-09848 and HST-GO-13346. SJA was a guest observer at DAO.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #229
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AAS...22915105P