Sulfur abundances in the Orion association B stars

Simone Daflon, Katia Cunha, Ramiro De La Reza, Jon Holtzman, Cristina Chiappini

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sulfur abundances are derived for a sample of 10 B main-sequence star members of the Orion association. The analysis is based on LTE plane-parallel model atmospheres and non-LTE line formation theory by means of a self-consistent spectrum synthesis analysis of lines from two ionization states of sulfur, S II and S III. The observations are high-resolution spectra obtained with the ARCES spectrograph at the Apache Point Observatory. The abundance distribution obtained for the Orion targets is homogeneous within the expected errors in the analysis: A(S) = 7.15± 0.05. This average abundance result is in agreement with the recommended solar value (both from modeling of the photospheres in one-dimensional and three-dimensional, and meteorites) and indicates that little, if any, chemical evolution of sulfur has taken place in the last ∼4.5 billion years. The sulfur abundances of the young stars in Orion are found to agree well with results for the Orion Nebulae, and place strong constraints on the amount of sulfur depletion onto grains as being very modest or nonexistent. The sulfur abundances for Orion are consistent with other measurements at a similar galactocentric radius: combined with previous results for other OB-type stars produce a relatively shallow sulfur abundance gradient with a slope of -0.037± 0.012 dex kpc-1.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1577-1583
Number of pages7
JournalAstronomical Journal
Volume138
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • open clusters and associations: individual (Ori OB1)
  • stars: abundances
  • stars: early-type

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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