Spectroscopy of galactic halo and bulge stars

• Grant number: 13/08915-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Astronomy - Stellar Astrophysics
• Principal Investigator: Beatriz Leonor Silveira Barbuy
• Grantee: César Henrique Siqueira Mello Junior
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 10/50930-6 - Chemical evolution and galactic and extragalactic stellar populations, by means of spectroscopy and imaging, AP.TEM

Abstract

The project aims at analyzing spectroscopic data of the Galactic bulge globular clusters Al3 and NGC 6355, both with moderate metallicity and blue horizontal branch, which indicate that they are very old. From the chemical abundance determination of the heavy elements in a dozen to about thirty stars of these clusters (to be verified in the data), it is expected to obtain important information on the mechanisms operating in the formation of such objects, in the formation of the Galactic bulge, and on the nature of the first stars, known as Population III. In parallel, with the same aim of understanding the nucleosynthesis mechanisms responsible for early chemical enrichment of the Galaxy, now in the halo and in the ultraviolet (UV), based on the candidate's experience developed during the PhD thesis wor. Two important programs will be developed: the study of a large sample of metal-poor halo stars with the new spectrograph STELES at SOAR; an even larger program to be prepared for the spectrograph CUBES that is being prepared for the Very Large Telescope. The project will start with preparation of improved spectral lines list in the near ultraviolet for heavy elements. Most of these elements present most of their transitions in the UV, and for some of them only this spectral region has measurable lines.