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J. S. Sobeck, J. A. Simmerer (U. Texas, Austin), J. P. Fulbright (Carnegie Obs.), C. Sneden (U. Texas, Austin), R. P. Kraft (U. California, Santa Cruz), I. I. Ivans (Caltech)
We have derived Mn abundances for more than 100 stars in nine Galactic globular clusters: M3, M4, M5, M10, M13, M15, M71, Pal5 and NGC 7006. In addition, Mn abundance determinations have been made for a comparable number of halo field stars possessing an overlapping range of metallicities and stellar parameters. The spectra of the cluster giants were obtained as a part of the Lick-Texas investigations into globular cluster chemistry. The spectra of the field stars are a part of a large study by Simmerer et al. (2004, ApJ, submitted). Data were collected at the McDonald, Lick ,and Keck Observatories and were analyzed using the synthetic spectra of the 6000 ÅMn I triplet. Hyperfine structure parameters were included in the synthetic spectra computations.
It is well known that metal-poor field stars possess [Mn/Fe] ratios approximately a factor of two lower than solar values (Wallerstein et al. 1963, Gratton et al.1989, McWilliam et al. 1997). Our analysis shows that for the metallicity range -0.5 > [Fe/H] > -2.8 field stars have a mean relative abundance of <[Mn/Fe]> = -0.28±0.01 (sigma = 0.08), a value esssentially identical to that of the nine globular clusters: <[Mn/Fe]> = -0.28±0.01 (sigma = 0.12). It is evident that [Mn/Fe] ratios of metal-poor stars do not depend upon their environment. Our Mn abundance results viewed in conjunction with the globular cluster Cu abundances of Simmerer et al. (2003) suggest the following possibilities: one, the production of these elements is extremely metallicity-dependent or two, these elements were manufactured in the Galactic halo prior to cluster formation.
Ongoing support from NSF, currently through grants AST-0307495 to CS and AST-0098453 to RPK, is gratefully acknowledged. Research for III is currently supported by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF-01151.01-A from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
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