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The Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey is an ambitious project designed to obtain astrophysical parameters and elemental abundances for 100,000 stars, including large representative samples of the stellar populations in the Galaxy, and a well-defined sample of 60 (plus 20 archive) open clusters. We provide internally consistent results calibrated on benchmark stars and star clusters, extending across a very wide range of abundances and ages. This provides a legacy data set of intrinsic value, and equally a large wide-ranging dataset that is of value for homogenisation of other and future stellar surveys and Gaia's astrophysical parameters. This article provides an overview of the survey methodology, the scientific aims, and the implementation, including a description of the data processing for the GIRAFFE spectra. A companion paper (arXiv:2206.02901) introduces the survey results. Gaia-ESO aspires to quantify both random and systematic contributions to measurement uncertainties. Thus all available spectroscopic analysis techniques are utilised, each spectrum being analysed by up to several different analysis pipelines, with considerable effort being made to homogenise and calibrate the resulting parameters. We describe here the sequence of activities up to delivery of processed data products to the ESO Science Archive Facility for open use. The Gaia-ESO Survey obtained 202,000 spectra of 115,000 stars using 340 allocated VLT nights between December 2011 and January 2018 from GIRAFFE and UVES. The full consistently reduced final data set of spectra was released through the ESO Science Archive Facility in late 2020, with the full astrophysical parameters sets following in 2022., Comment: 38 pages. A&A in press

In the last 15 years different ground-based spectroscopic surveys have been started (and completed) with the general aim of delivering stellar parameters and elemental abundances for large samples of Galactic stars, complementing Gaia astrometry. Among those surveys, the Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey (GES), the only one performed on a 8m class telescope, was designed to target 100,000 stars using FLAMES on the ESO VLT (both Giraffe and UVES spectrographs), covering all the Milky Way populations, with a special focus on open star clusters. This article provides an overview of the survey implementation (observations, data quality, analysis and its success, data products, and releases), of the open cluster survey, of the science results and potential, and of the survey legacy. A companion article (Gilmore et al.) reviews the overall survey motivation, strategy, Giraffe pipeline data reduction, organisation, and workflow. The GES has determined homogeneous good-quality radial velocities and stellar parameters for a large fraction of its more than 110,000 unique target stars. Elemental abundances were derived for up to 31 elements for targets observed with UVES. Lithium abundances are delivered for about 1/3 of the sample. The analysis and homogenisation strategies have proven to be successful; several science topics have been addressed by the Gaia-ESO consortium and the community, with many highlight results achieved. The final catalogue has been released through the ESO archive at the end of May 2022, including the complete set of advanced data products. In addition to these results, the Gaia-ESO Survey will leave a very important legacy, for several aspects and for many years to come., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 30 pages, 30 figures, 4 tables

The detection of $^6$Li in Spite plateau stars contradicts the standard Big Bang nucleosynthesis prediction, known as the second cosmological lithium problem. We measure the isotopic ratio $^6$Li/$^7$Li in three Spite plateau stars: HD 84937, HD 140283, and LP 815-43. We use 3D NLTE radiative transfer and for the first time apply this to high resolution, high-S/N data from the ultra-stable VLT/ESPRESSO spectrograph. These are amongst the best spectra ever taken of any metal-poor stars. As the measurement of $^6$Li/$^7$Li is degenerate with other physical stellar parameters, we employ Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to find the probability distributions of measured parameters. As a test of systematics we also use three different fitting methods. We do not detect $^6$Li in any of the three stars, and find consistent results between our different methods. We estimate 2$\sigma$ upper limits to $^6$Li/$^7$Li of 0.7%, 0.6%, and 1.7% respectively for HD 84937, HD 140283, and LP 815-43. Our results indicate that there is no second cosmological lithium problem, as there is no evidence of $^6$Li in Spite Plateau stars., Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are the fourth, sixth, and third most abundant elements in the Sun. Their abundances remain hotly debated due to the so-called solar modelling problem that has persisted for almost $20$ years. We revisit this issue by presenting a homogeneous analysis of $408$ molecular lines across $12$ diagnostic groups, observed in the solar intensity spectrum. Using a realistic 3D radiative-hydrodynamic model solar photosphere and LTE (local thermodynamic equilibrium) line formation, we find $\log\epsilon_{C} = 8.47\pm0.02$, $\log\epsilon_{N} = 7.89\pm0.04$, and $\log\epsilon_{O} = 8.70\pm0.04$. The stipulated uncertainties mainly reflect the sensitivity of the results to the model atmosphere; this sensitivity is correlated between the different diagnostic groups, which all agree with the mean result to within $0.03$ dex. For carbon and oxygen, the molecular results are in excellent agreement with our 3D non-LTE analyses of atomic lines. For nitrogen, however, the molecular indicators give a $0.12$ dex larger abundance than the atomic indicators, and our best estimate of the solar nitrogen abundance is given by the mean: $7.83$ dex. The solar oxygen abundance advocated here is close to our earlier determination of $8.69$ dex, and so the present results do not significantly alleviate the solar modelling problem., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We present chemical abundances for 21 elements (from Li to Eu) in 150 metal-poor Galactic stars spanning $-$4.1 $<$ [Fe/H] $<$ $-$2.1. The targets were selected from the SkyMapper survey and include 90 objects with [Fe/H] $\le$ $-$3 of which some 15 have [Fe/H] $\le$ $-$3.5. When combining the sample with our previous studies, we find that the metallicity distribution function has a power-law slope of $\Delta$(log N)/$\Delta$[Fe/H] = 1.51 $\pm$ 0.01 dex per dex over the range $-$4 $\le$ [Fe/H] $\le$ $-$3. With only seven carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars in the sample, we again find that the selection of metal-poor stars based on SkyMapper filters is biased against highly carbon rich stars for [Fe/H] $>$ $-$3.5. Of the 20 objects for which we could measure nitrogen, 11 are nitrogen-enhanced metal-poor stars. Within our sample, the high NEMP fraction (55\% $\pm$ 21\%) is compatible with the upper range of predicted values (between 12\% and 35\%). The chemical abundance ratios [X/Fe] versus [Fe/H] exhibit similar trends to previous studies of metal-poor stars and Galactic chemical evolution models. We report the discovery of nine new r-I stars, four new r-II stars, one of which is the most metal-poor known, nine low-$\alpha$ stars with [$\alpha$/Fe] $\le$ 0.15 as well as one unusual star with [Zn/Fe] = +1.4 and [Sr/Fe] = +1.2 but with normal [Ba/Fe]. Finally, we combine our sample with literature data to provide the most extensive view of the early chemical enrichment of the Milky Way Galaxy., Comment: MNRAS in press (see source file for full versions of long tables)

Neutron-star mergers were recently confirmed as sites of rapid-neutron-capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis. However, in Galactic chemical evolution models, neutron-star mergers alone cannot reproduce the observed element abundance patterns of extremely metal-poor stars, which indicates the existence of other sites of r-process nucleosynthesis. These sites may be investigated by studying the element abundance patterns of chemically primitive stars in the halo of the Milky Way, because these objects retain the nucleosynthetic signatures of the earliest generation of stars. Here we report the element abundance pattern of the extremely metal-poor star SMSS J200322.54-114203.3. We observe a large enhancement in r-process elements, with very low overall metallicity. The element abundance pattern is well matched by the yields of a single 25-solar-mass magnetorotational hypernova. Such a hypernova could produce not only the r-process elements, but also light elements during stellar evolution, and iron-peak elements during explosive nuclear burning. Hypernovae are often associated with long-duration gamma-ray bursts in the nearby Universe. This connection indicates that similar explosions of fast-spinning strongly magnetized stars occurred during the earliest epochs of star formation in our Galaxy., Comment: Author's version of a Letter published in Nature on July 8th, 2021

Recent work has revealed two classes of Globular Clusters (GCs), dubbed Type-I and Type-II. Type-II GCs are characterized by a blue- and a red- red giant branch composed of stars with different metallicities, often coupled with distinct abundances in the slow-neutron capture elements (s-elements). Here we continue the chemical tagging of Type-II GCs by adding the two least-massive clusters of this class, NGC1261 and NGC6934. Based on both spectroscopy and photometry, we find that red stars in NGC1261 are slightly enhanced in [Fe/H] by ~0.1 dex and confirm that red stars of NGC 6934 are enhanced in iron by ~0.2 dex. Neither NGC1261 nor NGC6934 show internal variations in the s-elements, which suggests a GC mass threshold for the occurrence of s-process enrichment. We found a significant correlation between the additional Fe locked in the red stars of Type-II GCs and the present-day mass of the cluster. Nevertheless, most Type II GCs retained a small fraction of Fe produced by SNe II, lower than the 2%; NGC6273, M54 and omega Centauri are remarkable exceptions. In the appendix, we infer for the first time chemical abundances of Lanthanum, assumed as representative of the s-elements, in M54, the GC located in the nucleus of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. Red-sequence stars are marginally enhanced in [La/Fe] by 0.10\pm0.06 dex, in contrast with the large [La/Fe] spread of most Type II GCs. We suggest that different processes are responsible for the enrichment in iron and s-elements in Type-II GCs., Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, submitted

CONTEXT: [ABRIDGED]. For the Milky Way bulge, there are currently essentially no measurements of carbon in un-evolved stars, hampering our abilities to properly compare Galactic chemical evolution models to observational data for this still enigmatic stellar population. AIMS: We aim to determine carbon abundances for our sample of 91 microlensed bulge dwarf and subgiant stars. Together with new determinations for oxygen this forms the first statistically significant sample of bulge stars that have C and O abundances measured, and for which the C abundances have not been altered by the nuclear burning processes internal to the stars. METHODS: The analysis is based on high-resolution spectra for a sample of 91 dwarf and subgiant stars that were obtained during microlensing events when the brightnesses of the stars were highly magnified. Carbon abundances were determined through spectral line synthesis of five CI lines around 9100 A, and oxygen abundances using the three OI lines at about 7770 A. [ABRIDGED] RESULTS: Carbon abundances was possible to determine for 70 of the 91 stars in the sample and oxygen abundances for 88 of the 91 stars in the sample. The [C/Fe] ratio evolves essentially in lockstep with [Fe/H], centred around solar values at all [Fe/H]. The [O/Fe]-[Fe/H] trend has an appearance very similar to that observed for other alpha-elements in the bulge, [ABRIDGED]. When dividing the bulge sample into two sub-groups, one younger than 8 Gyr and one older than 8 Gyr, the stars in the two groups follow exactly the elemental abundance trends defined by the solar neighbourhood thin and thick disks, respectively. Comparisons with recent models of Galactic chemical evolution in the [C/O]-[O/H] plane shows that the models that best match the data are the ones that have been calculated with the Galactic thin and thick disks in mind. [ABRIDGED] ...., Comment: 13 pages, new version accepted for publication in A&A

The chemical composition of the Sun is a fundamental yardstick in astronomy, relative to which essentially all cosmic objects are referenced. We reassess the solar abundances of all 83 long-lived elements, using highly realistic solar modelling and state-of-the-art spectroscopic analysis techniques coupled with the best available atomic data and observations. Our new improved analysis confirms the relatively low solar abundances of C, N, and O obtained in our previous 3D-based studies: $\log\epsilon_{\text{C}}=8.46\pm0.04$, $\log\epsilon_{\text{N}}=7.83\pm0.07$, and $\log\epsilon_{\text{O}}=8.69\pm0.04$. The revised solar abundances for the other elements also typically agree well with our previously recommended values with just Li, F, Ne, Mg, Cl, Kr, Rb, Rh, Ba, W, Ir, and Pb differing by more than $0.05$ dex. The here advocated present-day photospheric metal mass fraction is only slightly higher than our previous value, mainly due to the revised Ne abundance from Genesis solar wind measurements: $X_{\rm surface}=0.7438\pm0.0054$, $Y_{\rm surface}=0.2423\pm 0.0054$, $Z_{\rm surface}=0.0139\pm 0.0006$, and $Z_{\rm surface}/X_{\rm surface}=0.0187\pm 0.0009$. Overall the solar abundances agree well with those of CI chondritic meteorites but we identify a correlation with condensation temperature such that moderately volatile elements are enhanced by $\approx 0.04$ dex in the CI chondrites and refractory elements possibly depleted by $\approx 0.02$ dex, conflicting with conventional wisdom of the past half-century. Instead the solar chemical composition resembles more closely that of the fine-grained matrix of CM chondrites. The so-called solar modelling problem remains intact with our revised solar abundances, suggesting shortcomings with the computed opacities and/or treatment of mixing below the convection zone in existing standard solar models., Comment: 31 pages, arXiv abstract abridged; accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

In order to accurately determine stellar properties, knowledge of the effective temperature of stars is vital. We implement Gaia and 2MASS photometry in the InfraRed Flux Method and apply it to over 360,000 stars across different evolutionary stages in the GALAH DR3 survey. We derive colour-effective temperature relations that take into account the effect of metallicity and surface gravity over the range 4000 to 8000 kelvin, from very metal-poor stars to super solar metallicities. The internal uncertainty of these calibrations is of order 40-80 kelvin depending on the colour combination used. Comparison against solar-twins, Gaia benchmark stars and the latest interferometric measurements validates the precision and accuracy of these calibrations from F to early M spectral types. We assess the impact of various sources of uncertainties, including the assumed extinction law, and provide guidelines to use our relations. Robust solar colours are also derived., Comment: MNRAS accepted. Include Gaia solar colours. Colour-effective temperature routines for Gaia DR2 and DR3 system available at https://github.com/casaluca/colte

In this work we combine spectroscopic information from the \textit{SkyMapper survey for Extremely Metal-Poor stars} and astrometry from Gaia DR2 to investigate the kinematics of a sample of 475 stars with a metallicity range of $ -6.5 \leq \rm [Fe/H] \leq -2.05$ dex. Exploiting the action map, we identify 16 and 40 stars dynamically consistent with the \textit{Gaia Sausage} and \textit{Gaia Sequoia} accretion events, respectively. The most metal-poor of these candidates have metallicities of $\rm [Fe/H]=-3.31$ and $\rm [Fe/H]=-3.74$, respectively, helping to define the low-metallicity tail of the progenitors involved in the accretion events. We also find, consistent with other studies, that $\sim$21\% of the sample have orbits that remain confined to within 3~kpc of the Galactic plane, i.e., |Z$_{max}$| $\leq$ 3~kpc. Of particular interest is a sub-sample ($\sim$11\% of the total) of low |Z$_{max}$| stars with low eccentricities and prograde motions. The lowest metallicity of these stars has [Fe/H] = --4.30 and the sub-sample is best interpreted as the very low-metallicity tail of the metal-weak thick disk population. The low |Z$_{max}$|, low eccentricity stars with retrograde orbits are likely accreted, while the low |Z$_{max}$|, high eccentricity pro- and retrograde stars are plausibly associated with the \textit{Gaia Sausage} system. We find that a small fraction of our sample ($\sim$4\% of the total) is likely escaping from the Galaxy, and postulate that these stars have gained energy from gravitational interactions that occur when infalling dwarf galaxies are tidally disrupted., Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Accurately known stellar lithium abundances may be used to shed light on a variety of astrophysical phenomena such as Big Bang nucleosynthesis, radial migration, ages of stars and stellar clusters, and planet engulfment events. We present a grid of synthetic lithium spectra that are computed in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) across the STAGGER grid of three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic stellar atmosphere models. This grid covers three Li lines at 610.4 nm, 670.8 nm, and 812.6 nm for stellar parameters representative of FGK-type dwarfs and giants, spanning $T_{\rm{eff}}=4000$-7000 K, $\log g=1.5$-5.0, $[\rm{Fe}/\rm{H}] = -4.0$-0.5, and $\textrm{A(Li)} = -0.5$-4.0. We find that our abundance corrections are up to 0.15 dex more negative than in previous work, due to a previously overlooked NLTE effect of blocking of UV lithium lines by background opacities, which has important implications for a wide range of science cases. We derive a new 3D NLTE solar abundance of $\textrm{A(Li)} = 0.96 \pm 0.05$, which is 0.09 dex lower than the commonly used value. We make our grids of synthetic spectra and abundance corrections publicly available through the Breidablik package. This package includes methods for accurately interpolating our grid to arbitrary stellar parameters through methods based on Kriging (Gaussian process regression) for line profiles, and MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptrons, a class of fully connected feedforward neural networks) for NLTE corrections and 3D NLTE abundances from equivalent widths, achieving interpolation errors of the order 0.01 dex., Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Massive sets of stellar spectroscopic observations are rapidly becoming available and these can be used to determine the chemical composition and evolution of the Galaxy with unprecedented precision. One of the major challenges in this endeavour involves constructing realistic models of stellar spectra with which to reliably determine stellar abundances. At present, large stellar surveys commonly use simplified models that assume that the stellar atmospheres are approximately in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). To test and ultimately relax this assumption, we have performed non-LTE calculations for $13$ different elements (H, Li, C, N, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Mn, and Ba), using recent model atoms that have physically-motivated descriptions for the inelastic collisions with neutral hydrogen, across a grid of $3756$ 1D MARCS model atmospheres that spans $3000\leq T_{\mathrm{eff}}/\mathrm{K}\leq8000$, $-0.5\leq\log{g/\mathrm{cm\,s^{-2}}}\leq5.5$, and $-5\leq\mathrm{[Fe/H]}\leq1$. We present the grids of departure coefficients that have been implemented into the GALAH DR3 analysis pipeline in order to complement the extant non-LTE grid for iron. We also present a detailed line-by-line re-analysis of $50126$ stars from GALAH DR3. We found that relaxing LTE can change the abundances by between $-0.7\,\mathrm{dex}$ and $+0.2\,\mathrm{dex}$ for different lines and stars. Taking departures from LTE into account can reduce the dispersion in the $\mathrm{[A/Fe]}$ versus $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}$ plane by up to $0.1\,\mathrm{dex}$, and it can remove spurious differences between the dwarfs and giants by up to $0.2\,\mathrm{dex}$. The resulting abundance slopes can thus be qualitatively different in non-LTE, possibly with important implications for the chemical evolution of our Galaxy., Comment: 19 pages, 25 figures, 2 tables, arXiv abstract abridged; accepted for publication in A&A

We present a line-by-line differential analysis of a sample of 16 planet hosting stars and 68 comparison stars using high resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectra gathered using Keck. We obtained accurate stellar parameters and high-precision relative chemical abundances with average uncertainties in \teff, \logg, [Fe/H] and [X/H] of 15 K, 0.034 [cgs], 0.012 dex and 0.025 dex, respectively. For each planet host, we identify a set of comparison stars and examine the abundance differences (corrected for Galactic chemical evolution effect) as a function of the dust condensation temperature, \tcond, of the individual elements. While we confirm that the Sun exhibits a negative trend between abundance and \tcond, we also confirm that the remaining planet hosts exhibit a variety of abundance $-$ \tcond\ trends with no clear dependence upon age, metallicity or \teff. The diversity in the chemical compositions of planet hosting stars relative to their comparison stars could reflect the range of possible planet-induced effects present in these planet hosts, from the sequestration of rocky material (refractory poor), to the possible ingestion of planets (refractory rich). Other possible explanations include differences in the timescale, efficiency and degree of planet formation or inhomogeneous chemical evolution. Although we do not find an unambiguous chemical signature of planet formation among our sample, the high-precision chemical abundances of the host stars are essential for constraining the composition and structure of their exoplanets., Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Binary stellar systems form a large fraction of the Galaxy's stars. They are useful as laboratories for studying the physical processes taking place within stars, and must be correctly taken into account when observations of stars are used to study the structure and evolution of the Galaxy. We present a sample of 12760 well-characterised double-lined spectroscopic binaries that are appropriate for statistical studies of the binary populations. They were detected as SB2s using a t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding (t-SNE) classification and a cross-correlation analysis of GALAH spectra. This sample consists mostly of dwarfs, with a significant fraction of evolved stars and several dozen members of the giant branch. To compute parameters of the primary and secondary star ($T_{\rm eff[1,2]}$, $\log g_{[1,2]}$, [Fe/H], $V_{r[1,2]}$, $v_{\rm mic[1,2]}$, $v_{\rm broad[1,2]}$, $R_{[1,2]}$, and $E(B-V)$), we used a Bayesian approach that includes a parallax prior from Gaia DR2, spectra from GALAH, and apparent magnitudes from APASS, Gaia DR2, 2MASS, and WISE. The derived stellar properties and their distributions show trends that are expected for a population of close binaries (a $<$ 10 AU) with mass ratios $0.5 \leq q \leq 1$. The derived metallicity of these binary stars is statistically lower than that of single dwarf stars from the same magnitude-limited sample., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

Nitrogen is an important element in various fields of stellar and Galactic astronomy, and the solar nitrogen abundance is crucial as a yardstick for comparing different objects in the cosmos. In order to obtain a precise and accurate value for this abundance, we carried out N i line formation calculations in a 3D radiative-hydrodynamic STAGGER model solar atmosphere, in full 3D non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE), using a model atom that includes physically-motivated descriptions for the inelastic collisions of N i with free electrons and with neutral hydrogen. We selected five N i lines of high excitation energy to study in detail, based on their strengths and on their being relatively free of blends. We found that these lines are slightly strengthened from non-LTE photon losses and from 3D granulation effects, resulting in negative abundance corrections of around $-0.01$ dex and $-0.04$ dex respectively. Our advocated solar nitrogen abundance is $\log\epsilon_{\mathrm{N}} = 7.77$, with the systematic $1\sigma$ uncertainty estimated to be $0.05$ dex. This result is consistent with earlier studies after correcting for differences in line selections and equivalent widths., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables; accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Lithium abundances are presented for 91 dwarf and subgiant stars in the Galactic bulge. The analysis is based on line synthesis of the 7Li line at 6707 {\AA} in high-resolution spectra obtained during gravitational microlensing events, when the brightnesses of the targets were highly magnified. Our main finding is that the bulge stars at sub-solar metallicities, and that are older than about eight billion years, does not show any sign of Li production, that is, the Li trend with metallicity is flat (or even slightly declining). This indicates that no lithium was produced during the first few billion years in the history of the bulge. This finding is essentially identical to what is seen for the (old) thick disk stars in the Solar neighbourhood, and adds another piece of evidence for a tight connection between the metal-poor bulge and the Galactic thick disk. For the bulge stars younger than about eight billion years, the sample contains a group of stars at very high metallicities at [Fe/H]~+0.4 that have lithium abundances in the range A(Li)=2.6-2.8. In the Solar neighbourhood the lithium abundances have been found to peak at a A(Li)~3.3 at [Fe/H]~ +0.1 and then decrease by 0.4-0.5 dex when reaching [Fe/H]~+0.4. The few bulge stars that we have at these metallicities, seem to support this declining A(Li) trend. This could indeed support the recent claim that the low A(Li) abundances at the highest metallicities seen in the Solar neighbourhood could be due to stars from the inner disk, or the bulge region, that have migrated to the Solar neighbourhood., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to A&A after referee comments

We present and discuss the results of a search for extremely metal-poor stars based on photometry from data release DR1.1 of the SkyMapper imaging survey of the southern sky. In particular, we outline our photometric selection procedures and describe the low-resolution ($R$ $\approx$ 3000) spectroscopic follow-up observations that are used to provide estimates of effective temperature, surface gravity and metallicity ([Fe/H]) for the candidates. The selection process is very efficient: of the 2618 candidates with low-resolution spectra that have photometric metallicity estimates less than or equal to -2.0, 41% have [Fe/H] $\leq$ -2.75 and only $\sim$7% have [Fe/H] $>$ -2.0 dex. The most metal-poor candidate in the sample has [Fe/H] $<$ -4.75 and is notably carbon-rich. Except at the lowest metallicities ([Fe/H] $<$ -4), the stars observed spectroscopically are dominated by a `carbon-normal' population with [C/Fe]$_{1D,LTE}$ $\leq$ +1 dex. Consideration of the A(C)$_{1D, LTE}$ versus [Fe/H]$_{1D, LTE}$ diagram suggests that the current selection process is strongly biased against stars with A(C)$_{1D, LTE}$ $>$ 7.3 (predominantly CEMP-$s$) while any bias against stars with A(C)$_{1D, LTE}$ $<$ 7.3 and [C/Fe]$_{LTE}$ $>$ +1 (predominantly CEMP-no) is not readily quantifiable given the uncertainty in the SkyMapper $v$-band DR1.1 photometry. We find that the metallicity distribution function of the observed sample has a power-law slope of $\Delta$(Log N)/$\Delta$[Fe/H] = 1.5 $\pm$ 0.1 dex per dex for -4.0 $\leq$ [Fe/H] $\leq$ -2.75, but appears to drop abruptly at [Fe/H] $\approx$ -4.2, in line with previous studies., Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We report the discovery of SMSS J160540.18-144323.1, a new ultra-metal poor halo star discovered with the SkyMapper telescope. We measure [Fe/H] = -6.2 +- 0.2 (1D LTE), the lowest ever detected abundance of iron in a star. The star is strongly carbon-enhanced, [C/Fe] = 3.9 +- 0.2, while other abundances are compatible with an alpha-enhanced solar-like pattern with [Ca/Fe] = 0.4 +- 0.2, [Mg/Fe] = 0.6 +- 0.2, [Ti/Fe] = 0.8 +- 0.2, and no significant s- or r-process enrichment, [Sr/Fe] < 0.2 and [Ba/Fe] < 1.0 (3{\sigma} limits). Population III stars exploding as fallback supernovae may explain both the strong carbon enhancement and the apparent lack of enhancement of odd-Z and neutron-capture element abundances. Grids of supernova models computed for metal-free progenitor stars yield good matches for stars of about 10 solar mass imparting a low kinetic energy on the supernova ejecta, while models for stars more massive than roughly 20 solar mass are incompatible with the observed abundance pattern., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, submitted to MNRAS

This work explores the detailed chemistry of the Milky Way bulge using the HERMES spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Here we present the abundance ratios of 13 elements for 832 red giant branch and clump stars along the minor bulge axis at latitudes $b=-10^{\circ}, -7.5$ and $-5^{\circ}$. Our results show that none of the abundance ratios vary significantly with latitude. We also observe {\color{red}disk-like} [Na/Fe] abundance ratios, which indicates the bulge does not contain helium-enhanced populations as observed in some globular clusters. Helium enhancement is therefore not the likely explanation for the double red-clump observed in the bulge. We confirm that bulge stars mostly follow abundance trends observed in the disk. However, this similarity is not confirmed across for all elements and metallicity regimes. The more metal-poor bulge population at [Fe/H] $\lesssim -0.8$ is enhanced in the elements associated with core collapse supernovae (SNeII). In addition, the [La/Eu] abundance ratio suggests higher $r$-process contribution, and likely higher star formation in the bulge compared to the disk. This highlights the complex evolution in the bulge, which should be investigated further, both in terms of modelling; and with additional observations of the inner Galaxy., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to MNRAS July 2018; revised version. Online data access

To better understand the origin and evolution of the Milky Way bulge, we have conducted a survey of bulge red giant branch and clump stars using the HERMES spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We targeted ARGOS survey stars with pre-determined bulge memberships, covering the full metallicity distribution function. The spectra have signal-to-noise ratios comparable to, and were analysed using the same methods as the GALAH survey. In this work, we present the survey design, stellar parameters, distribution of metallicity and alpha-element abundances along the minor bulge axis at latitudes $b$ = $-10^{\circ}, -7.5^{\circ}$ and $-5^{\circ}$. Our analysis of ARGOS stars indicates that the centroids of ARGOS metallicity components should be located $\approx$0.09 dex closer together. The vertical distribution of $\alpha$-element abundances is consistent with the varying contributions of the different metallicity components. Closer to the plane, alpha abundance ratios are lower as the metal-rich population dominates. At higher latitudes, the alpha abundance ratios increase as the number of metal-poor stars increases. However, we find that the trend of alpha-enrichment with respect to metallicity is independent of latitude. Comparison of our results with those of GALAH DR2 revealed that for [Fe/H] $\approx -0.8$, the bulge shares the same abundance trend as the high-$\alpha$ disk population. However, the metal-poor bulge population ([Fe/H] $\lesssim -0.8$) show enhanced alpha abundance ratios compared to the disk/halo. These observations point to fairly rapid chemical evolution in the bulge, and that the metal-poor bulge population does not share the same similarity with the disk as the more metal-rich populations., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures. Submitted to MNRAS July 2018, revised version. Online data access

Carbon abundances in late-type stars are important in a variety of astrophysical contexts. However C i lines, one of the main abundance diagnostics, are sensitive to departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). We present a model atom for non-LTE analyses of C i lines, that uses a new, physically-motivated recipe for the rates of neutral hydrogen impact excitation. We analyse C i lines in the solar spectrum, employing a three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic model solar atmosphere and 3D non-LTE radiative transfer. We find negative non-LTE abundance corrections for C i lines in the solar photosphere, in accordance with previous studies, reaching up to around 0.1 dex in the disk-integrated flux. We also present the first fully consistent 3D non-LTE solar carbon abundance determination: we infer log $\epsilon_{\text{C}}$ = $8.44\pm0.02$, in good agreement with the current standard value. Our models reproduce the observed solar centre-to-limb variations of various C i lines, without any adjustments to the rates of neutral hydrogen impact excitation, suggesting that the proposed recipe may be a solution to the long-standing problem of how to reliably model inelastic collisions with neutral hydrogen in late-type stellar atmospheres., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in A&A

The present work aims to examine in detail the depletion of lithium in solar twins to better constrain stellar evolution models and investigate its possible connection with exoplanets. We employ spectral synthesis in the region of the asymmetric 6707.75 \AA Li I line for a sample of 77 stars plus the Sun. As in previous works based on a smaller sample of solar twins, we find a strong correlation between Li depletion and stellar age. In addition, for the first time we show that the Sun has the lowest Li abundance in comparison with solar twins at similar age (4.6 $\pm$ 0.5 Gyr). We compare the lithium content with the condensation temperature slope for a sub-sample of the best solar twins and determine that the most lithium depleted stars also have fewer refractory elements. We speculate whether the low lithium content in the Sun might be related to the particular configuration of our Solar system., Comment: Accepted for publication at MNRAS, 9 pages, 6 figures and 1 table

The signatures of the formation and evolution of a galaxy are imprinted in its stars. Their velocities, ages, and chemical compositions present major constraints on models of galaxy formation, and on various processes such as the gas inflows and outflows, the accretion of cold gas, radial migration, and the variability of star formation activity. Understanding the evolution of the Milky Way requires large observational datasets of stars via which these quantities can be determined accurately. This is the science driver of the 4MOST MIlky way Disc And BuLgE High-Resolution (4MIDABLE-HR) survey: to obtain high-resolution spectra at $R \sim 20\,000$ and to provide detailed elemental abundances for large samples of stars in the Galactic disc and bulge. High data quality will allow us to provide accurate spectroscopic diagnostics of two million stellar spectra: precise radial velocities; rotation; abundances of many elements, including those that are currently only accessible in the optical, such as Li, s-, and r-process; and multi-epoch spectra for a sub-sample of stars. Synergies with complementary missions like Gaia and TESS will provide masses, stellar ages and multiplicity, forming a multi-dimensional dataset that will allow us to explore and constrain the origin and structure of the Milky Way., Comment: Part of the 4MOST issue of The Messenger, published in preparation of 4MOST Community Workshop, see http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2019/4MOST.html

We introduce the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), a new high-multiplex, wide-field spectroscopic survey facility under development for the four-metre-class Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal. Its key specifications are: a large field of view (FoV) of 4.2 square degrees and a high multiplex capability, with 1624 fibres feeding two low-resolution spectrographs ($R = \lambda/\Delta\lambda \sim 6500$), and 812 fibres transferring light to the high-resolution spectrograph ($R \sim 20\,000$). After a description of the instrument and its expected performance, a short overview is given of its operational scheme and planned 4MOST Consortium science; these aspects are covered in more detail in other articles in this edition of The Messenger. Finally, the processes, schedules, and policies concerning the selection of ESO Community Surveys are presented, commencing with a singular opportunity to submit Letters of Intent for Public Surveys during the first five years of 4MOST operations., Comment: Part of the 4MOST issue of The Messenger, published in preparation of 4MOST Community Workshop, see http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2019/4MOST.html

The mechanisms of the formation and evolution of the Milky Way are encoded in the orbits, chemistry and ages of its stars. With the 4MOST MIlky way Disk And BuLgE Low-Resolution Survey (4MIDABLE-LR) we aim to study kinematic and chemical substructures in the Milky Way disc and bulge region with samples of unprecedented size out to larger distances and greater precision than conceivable with Gaia alone or any other ongoing or planned survey. Gaia gives us the unique opportunity for target selection based almost entirely on parallax and magnitude range, hence increasing the efficiency in sampling larger Milky Way volumes with well-defined and effective selection functions. Our main goal is to provide a detailed chrono-chemo-kinematical extended map of our Galaxy and the largest Gaia follow-up down to $G = 19$ magnitudes (Vega). The complex nature of the disc components (for example, large target densities and highly structured extinction distribution in the Milky Way bulge and disc area), prompted us to develop a survey strategy with five main sub-surveys that are tailored to answer the still open questions about the assembly and evolution of our Galaxy, while taking full advantage of the Gaia data., Comment: Part of the 4MOST issue of The Messenger, published in preparation of 4MOST Community Workshop, see http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2019/4MOST.html

We will study the formation history of the Milky Way, and the earliest phases of its chemical enrichment, with a sample of more than 1.5 million stars at high galactic latitude. Elemental abundances of up to 20 elements with a precision of better than 0.2 dex will be derived for these stars. The sample will include members of kinematically coherent substructures, which we will associate with their possible birthplaces by means of their abundance signatures and kinematics, allowing us to test models of galaxy formation. Our target catalogue is also expected to contain 30,000 stars at a metallicity of less than one hundredth that of the Sun. This sample will therefore be almost a factor of 100 larger than currently existing samples of metal-poor stars for which precise elemental abundances are available (determined from high-resolution spectroscopy), enabling us to study the early chemical evolution of the Milky Way in unprecedented detail., Comment: Part of the 4MOST issue of The Messenger, published in preparation of 4MOST Community Workshop, see http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2019/4MOST.html

Context. The benchmark open cluster M67 is known to have solar metallicity and similar age as the Sun. It thus provides us a great opportunity to study the properties of solar twins, as well as the evolution of Sun-like stars. Aims. Previous spectroscopic studies reported to detect possible subtle changes in stellar surface abundances throughout the stellar evolutionary phase, namely the effect of atomic diffusion, in M67. In this study we attempt to confirm and quantify more precisely the effect of atomic diffusion, as well as to explore the level of chemical (in)homogeneity in M67. Methods. We presented a strictly line-by-line differential chemical abundance analysis of two groups of stars in M67: three turn-off stars and three sub-giants. Stellar atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances were obtained with very high precision using the Keck/HIRES spectra. Results. The sub-giants in our sample show negligible abundance variations ($\le$ 0.02 dex), which implies that M67 was born chemically homogeneous. We note there is a significant abundance difference ($\sim$ 0.1 - 0.2 dex) between sub-giants and turn-off stars, which can be interpreted as the signature of atomic diffusion. Qualitatively stellar models with diffusion agree with the observed abundance results. Some turn-off stars do not follow the general pattern, which suggests that in some cases diffusion can be inhibited, or they might suffered some sort of mixing event related to planets. Conclusions. Our results pose additional challenges for chemical tagging when using turn-off stars. In particular, the effects of atomic diffusion, which could be as large as 0.1 - 0.2 dex, must be taken into account in order for chemical tagging to be successfully applied., Comment: 19 pages, 21 figures; submitted to A&A on February, 2019, accepted for publication in A&A on June, 2019

We present results from the analysis of high-resolution spectra obtained with the Keck HIRES spectrograph for a sample of 17 candidate extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars originally selected from commissioning data obtained with the SkyMapper telescope. Fourteen of the stars have not been observed previously at high dispersion. Three have [Fe/H]<=-3.0 while the remainder, with two more metal-rich exceptions, have -3.0<=[Fe/H]<=-2.0 dex. Apart from Fe, we also derive abundances for the elements C, N, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, and Zn, and for n-capture elements Sr, Ba, and Eu. None of the current sample of stars is found to be carbon-rich. In general our chemical abundances follow previous trends found in the literature, although we note that two of the most metal-poor stars show very low [Ba/Fe] (~-1.7) coupled with low [Sr/Ba] (~-0.3). Such stars are relatively rare in the Galactic halo. One further star, and possibly two others, meet the criteria for classification as a r-I star. This study, together with that of Jacobson et al. (2015), completes the outcomes of the SkyMapper commissioning data survey for EMP stars., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Carbon and oxygen are key tracers of the Galactic chemical evolution; in particular, a reported upturn in [C/O] towards decreasing [O/H] in metal-poor halo stars could be a signature of nucleosynthesis by massive Population III stars. We reanalyse carbon, oxygen, and iron abundances in thirty-nine metal-poor turn-off stars. For the first time, we take into account three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamic effects together with departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) when determining both the stellar parameters and the elemental abundances, by deriving effective temperatures from 3D non-LTE H$\beta$ profiles, surface gravities from Gaia parallaxes, iron abundances from 3D LTE Feii equivalent widths, and carbon and oxygen abundances from 3D non-LTE Ci and Oi equivalent widths. We find that [C/Fe] stays flat with [Fe/H], whereas [O/Fe] increases linearly up to $0.75$ dex with decreasing [Fe/H] down to $-3.0$ dex. As such [C/O] monotonically decreases towards decreasing [O/H], in contrast to previous findings, mainly by virtue of less severe non-LTE effects for Oi at low [Fe/H] with our improved calculations., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; published in A&A Letters

The Galactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey is a large-scale stellar spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way and designed to deliver chemical information complementary to a large number of stars covered by the $Gaia$ mission. We present the GALAH second public data release (GALAH DR2) containing 342,682 stars. For these stars, the GALAH collaboration provides stellar parameters and abundances for up to 23 elements to the community. Here we present the target selection, observation, data reduction and detailed explanation of how the spectra were analysed to estimate stellar parameters and element abundances. For the stellar analysis, we have used a multi-step approach. We use the physics-driven spectrum synthesis of Spectroscopy Made Easy (SME) to derive stellar labels ($T_\mathrm{eff}$, $\log g$, $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}$, $\mathrm{[X/Fe]}$, $v_\mathrm{mic}$, $v \sin i$, $A_{K_S}$) for a representative training set of stars. This information is then propagated to the whole survey with the data-driven method of $The~Cannon$. Special care has been exercised in the spectral synthesis to only consider spectral lines that have reliable atomic input data and are little affected by blending lines. Departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) are considered for several key elements, including Li, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, and Fe, using 1D MARCS stellar atmosphere models. Validation tests including repeat observations, Gaia benchmark stars, open and globular clusters, and K2 asteroseismic targets lend confidence in our methods and results. Combining the GALAH DR2 catalogue with the kinematic information from $Gaia$ will enable a wide range of Galactic Archaeology studies, with unprecedented detail, dimensionality, and scope., Comment: 34+7 pages, 31 Figures, 5 tables, 1 catalog, submitted to MNRAS

The overlap between the spectroscopic Galactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey & $Gaia$ provides a high-dimensional chemodynamical space of unprecedented size. We present a first analysis of a subset of this overlap, of 7066 dwarf, turn-off, & sub-giant stars. [...] We investigate correlations between chemical compositions, ages, & kinematics for this sample. Stellar parameters & elemental abundances are derived from the GALAH spectra with the spectral synthesis code SME. [...] We report Li, C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, as well as Ba & we note that we employ non-LTE calculations for Li, O, Al, & Fe. We show that the use of astrometric & photometric data improves the accuracy of the derived spectroscopic parameters, especially $\log g$. [...] we recover the result that stars of the high-$\alpha$ sequence are typically older than stars in the low-$\alpha$ sequence, the latter spanning $-0.7<$[Fe/H]$<+0.5$. While these two sequences become indistinguishable in [$\alpha$/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] at the metal-rich regime, we find that age can be used to separate stars from the extended high-$\alpha$ & the low-$\alpha$ sequence even in this regime. [...] we find that the old stars ($>8$ Gyr have lower angular momenta $L_z$ than the Sun, which implies that they are on eccentric orbits & originate from the inner disk. Contrary to some previous smaller scale studies we find a continuous evolution in the high-$\alpha$-sequence up to super-solar [Fe/H] rather than a gap, which has been interpreted as a separate "high-$\alpha$ metal-rich" population. Stars in our sample that are younger than 10 Gyr, are mainly found on the low $\alpha$-sequence & show a gradient in $L_z$ from low [Fe/H] ($L_z>L_{z,\odot}$) towards higher [Fe/H] ($L_z

The Hubble Space Telescope photometric survey of Galactic globular clusters (GCs) has revealed a peculiar "chromosome map" for NGC6934. Besides a typical sequence, similar to that observed in Type I GCs, NGC 6934 displays additional stars on the red side, analogous to the anomalous, Type II GCs, as defined in our previous work. We present a chemical abundance analysis of four red giants in this GC. Two stars are located on the chromosome map sequence common to all GCs, and another two on the additional sequence. We find: (i) star-to-star Fe variations, with the two anomalous stars being enriched by ~0.2 dex. Due to our small-size sample, this difference is at the ~2.5 sigma level; (ii) no evidence for variations in the slow neutron-capture abundances over Fe, at odds with what is often observed in anomalous Type II GCs, e.g. M 22 and Omega Centauri; (iii) no large variations in light elements C, O and Na, compatible with the targets location on the lower part of the chromosome map where such variations are not expected. Since the analyzed stars are homogeneous in light elements, the only way to reproduce the photometric splits on the sub-giant (SGB) and the red-giant (RGB) branches is to assume that red-RGB/faint-SGB stars are enhanced in [Fe/H] by ~0.2. This fact corroborates the spectroscopic evidence of a metallicity variation in NGC6934. The observed chemical pattern resembles only partially the other Type II GCs, suggesting that NGC6934 might belong either to a third class of GCs, or be a link between normal Type I and anomalous Type II GCs., Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Hydrogen Balmer lines are commonly used as spectroscopic effective temperature diagnostics of late-type stars. However, the absolute accuracy of classical methods that are based on one-dimensional (1D) hydrostatic model atmospheres and local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) is still unclear. To investigate this, we carry out 3D non-LTE calculations for the Balmer lines, performed, for the first time, over an extensive grid of 3D hydrodynamic STAGGER model atmospheres. For H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, and H$\gamma$, we find significant 1D non-LTE versus 3D non-LTE differences (3D effects): the outer wings tend to be stronger in 3D models, particularly for H$\gamma$, while the inner wings can be weaker in 3D models, particularly for H$\alpha$. For H$\alpha$, we also find significant 3D LTE versus 3D non-LTE differences (non-LTE effects): in warmer stars ($T_{\text{eff}}\approx6500$K) the inner wings tend to be weaker in non-LTE models, while at lower effective temperatures ($T_{\text{eff}}\approx4500$K) the inner wings can be stronger in non-LTE models; the non-LTE effects are more severe at lower metallicities. We test our 3D non-LTE models against observations of well-studied benchmark stars. For the Sun, we infer concordant effective temperatures from H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, and H$\gamma$; however the value is too low by around 50K which could signal residual modelling shortcomings. For other benchmark stars, our 3D non-LTE models generally reproduce the effective temperatures to within $1\sigma$ uncertainties. For H$\alpha$, the absolute 3D effects and non-LTE effects can separately reach around 100K, in terms of inferred effective temperatures. For metal-poor turn-off stars, 1D LTE models of H$\alpha$ can underestimate effective temperatures by around 150K. Our 3D non-LTE model spectra are publicly available, and can be used for more reliable spectroscopic effective temperature determinations., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, abstract abridged; accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

The OI 777 nm triplet is a key diagnostic of oxygen abundances in the atmospheres of FGK-type stars; however it is sensitive to departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). The accuracy of non-LTE line formation calculations has hitherto been limited by errors in the inelastic O+H collisional rate coefficients: several recent studies have used the so-called Drawin recipe, albeit with a correction factor $\mathrm{S_{H}}$ that is calibrated to the solar centre-to-limb variation of the triplet. We present a new model oxygen atom that incorporates inelastic O+H collisional rate coefficients using an asymptotic two-electron model based on linear combinations of atomic orbitals, combined with a free electron model, based on the impulse approximation. Using a 3D hydrodynamic stagger model solar atmosphere and 3D non-LTE line formation calculations, we demonstrate that this physically-motivated approach is able to reproduce the solar centre-to-limb variation of the triplet to 0.02 dex, without any calibration of the inelastic collisional rate coefficients or other free parameters. We infer $\log\epsilon_{\mathrm{O}}=8.69\pm0.03$ from the triplet alone, strengthening the case for a low solar oxygen abundance., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures; published in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Differences in the elemental abundances of planet hosting stars in binary systems can give important clues and constraints about planet formation and evolution. In this study we performed a high-precision, differential elemental abundance analysis of a wide binary system, HD 80606/80607, based on high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio Keck/HIRES spectra. HD 80606 is known to host a four Jupiter mass giant planet while no planet has yet been detected around HD 80607. We determined stellar parameters as well as abundances for 23 elements for these two stars with extremely high precision. Our main results are: (i) we confirmed that the two components share very similar chemical compositions, but HD 80606 is marginally more metal-rich than HD 80607 with an average difference of +0.013 $\pm$ 0.002 dex ($\sigma$ = 0.009 dex) and (ii) there is no obvious trend between abundance differences and condensation temperature. Assuming this binary formed from material with the same chemical composition, it is difficult to understand how giant planet formation could produce the present-day photospheric abundances of the elements we measure. We can not exclude the possibility that HD 80606 might have accreted about 2.5 to 5 $M_{\rm Earth}$ material onto its surface, possibly from a planet destabilised by the known highly-eccentric giant., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figues, accepted for publication in A&A

Large stellar surveys of the Milky Way require validation with reference to a set of "benchmark" stars whose fundamental properties are well-determined. For metal-poor benchmark stars, disagreement between spectroscopic and interferometric effective temperatures has called the reliability of the temperature scale into question. We present new interferometric measurements of three metal-poor benchmark stars, HD 140283, HD 122563, and HD 103095, from which we determine their effective temperatures. The angular sizes of all the stars were determined from observations with the PAVO beam combiner at visible wavelengths at the CHARA array, with additional observations of HD 103095 made with the VEGA instrument, also at the CHARA array. Together with photometrically derived bolometric fluxes, the angular diameters give a direct measurement of the effective temperature. For HD 140283 we find {\theta}_LD = 0.324+/-0.005 mas, Teff = 5787+/-48 K; for HD 122563, {\theta}_LD = 0.926+/-0.011 mas, Teff = 4636+/-37 K; and for HD 103095 {\theta}_LD = 0.595+/-0.007 mas, Teff = 5140+/-49 K. Our temperatures for HD 140283 and HD 103095 are hotter than the previous interferometric measurements by 253 K and 322 K, respectively. We find good agreement between our temperatures and recent spectroscopic and photometric estimates. We conclude some previous interferometric measurements have been affected by systematic uncertainties larger than their quoted errors., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures

Context. The surface structures and dynamics of cool stars are characterized by the presence of convective motions and turbulent flows which shape the emergent spectrum. Aims. We used realistic three-dimensional radiative hydrodynamical simulations from the Stagger-grid to calculate synthetic spectra with the radiative transfer code Optim3D for stars with different stellar parameters to predict photometric colors and convective velocity shifts. Methods. We calculated spectra from 1000 to 200 000 A with a constant resolving power of 20 000 and from 8470 and 8710 A (Gaia Radial Velocity Spectrometer - RVS - spectral range), with a constant resolving power of 300 000. Results. We used synthetic spectra to compute theoretical colors in the Johnson-Cousins UBV(RI), SDSS, 2MASS, Gaia, SkyMapper, Stromgren systems, and HST-WFC3. We showed that 1D versus 3D differences are limited to a small percent except for the narrow filters that span the optical and UV region of the spectrum. In addition, we derived the effect of the convective velocity fields on selected Fe I lines. We found the overall convective shift for 3D simulations with respect to the reference 1D hydrostatic models, revealing line shifts of between -0.235 and +0.361 km/s. We showed a net correlation of the convective shifts with the effective temperature: lower effective temperatures denote redshifts and higher effective temperatures denote blueshifts. We conclude that the extraction of accurate radial velocities from RVS spectra need an appropriate wavelength correction from convection shifts. Conclusions. The use of realistic 3D hydrodynamical stellar atmosphere simulations has a small but significant impact on the predicted photometry compared with classical 1D hydrostatic models for late-type stars. We make all the spectra publicly available for the community through the POLLUX database., Comment: Accepted for publication on Astronomy & Astrophysics. All the 3D spectra presented in this work will be soon publicly available for the community through the POLLUX database (http://www.pollux.graal.univ-montp2.fr)

Using data from the GALAH pilot survey, we determine properties of the Galactic thin and thick disks near the solar neighbourhood. The data cover a small range of Galactocentric radius ($7.9 \leq R_\mathrm{GC} \leq 9.5$ kpc), but extend up to 4 kpc in height from the Galactic plane, and several kpc in the direction of Galactic anti-rotation (at longitude $260 ^\circ \leq \ell \leq 280^\circ$). This allows us to reliably measure the vertical density and abundance profiles of the chemically and kinematically defined `thick' and `thin' disks of the Galaxy. The thin disk (low-$\alpha$ population) exhibits a steep negative vertical metallicity gradient, at d[M/H]/d$z=-0.18 \pm 0.01$ dex kpc$^{-1}$, which is broadly consistent with previous studies. In contrast, its vertical $\alpha$-abundance profile is almost flat, with a gradient of d[$\alpha$/M]/d$z$ = $0.008 \pm 0.002$ dex kpc$^{-1}$. The steep vertical metallicity gradient of the low-$\alpha$ population is in agreement with models where radial migration has a major role in the evolution of the thin disk. The thick disk (high-$\alpha$ population) has a weaker vertical metallicity gradient d[M/H]/d$z = -0.058 \pm 0.003$ dex kpc$^{-1}$. The $\alpha$-abundance of the thick disk is nearly constant with height, d[$\alpha$/M]/d$z$ = $0.007 \pm 0.002$ dex kpc$^{-1}$. The negative gradient in metallicity and the small gradient in [$\alpha$/M] indicate that the high-$\alpha$ population experienced a settling phase, but also formed prior to the onset of major SNIa enrichment. We explore the implications of the distinct $\alpha$-enrichments and narrow [$\alpha$/M] range of the sub-populations in the context of thick disk formation., Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) stars are known to be chemically diverse. In this paper we present the first observational evidence of a star that has failed the third dredge-up (TDU). J005252.87-722842.9 is a A-type ($T_{\rm eff}$ = 8250 $\pm$ 250K) luminous (8200 $\pm$ 700 $\rm L_{\odot}$), metal-poor ($\textrm{[Fe/H]}$ = $- 1.18 \pm$ 0.10), low-mass (M$_{\rm initial}$ $\approx$ 1.5 $-$ 2.0 $\rm M_{\odot}$) post-AGB star in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Through a systematic abundance study, using high-resolution optical spectra from UVES, we found that this likely post-AGB object shows an intriguing photospheric composition with no confirmed carbon-enhancement (upper limit of [C/Fe] $<$ 0.50) nor enrichment of $s$-process elements. We derived an oxygen abundance of [O/Fe] = 0.29 $\pm$ 0.1. For Fe and O, we took into account the effects of non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE). We could not derive an upper limit for the nitrogen abundance as there are no useful nitrogen lines within our spectral coverage. The chemical pattern displayed by this object has not been observed in single or binary post-AGBs. Based on its derived stellar parameters and inferred evolutionary state, single star nucleosynthesis models predict that this star should have undergone TDU episodes while on the AGB and be carbon-enriched. However, our observations are in contrast with these predictions. We identify two possible Galactic analogues which are likely to be post-AGB stars, but the lack of accurate distances (hence luminosities) to these objects does not allow us to confirm their post-AGB status. If they have low luminosities then they are likely to be dusty post-RGB stars. The discovery of J005252.87-722842.9 reveals a new stellar evolutionary channel whereby a star evolves without any third dredge-up episodes., Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables

The four main findings about the age and abundance structure of the Milky Way bulge based on microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars are: (1) a wide metallicity distribution with distinct peaks at [Fe/H]=-1.09, -0.63, -0.20, +0.12, +0.41; (2) a high fraction of intermediate-age to young stars where at [Fe/H]>0 more than 35 % are younger than 8 Gyr, (3) several episodes of significant star formation in the bulge 3, 6, 8, and 11 Gyr ago; (4) the `knee' in the alpha-element abundance trends of the sub-solar metallicity bulge appears to be located at a slightly higher [Fe/H] (about 0.05 to 0.1 dex) than in the local thick disk., Comment: 4 pages, contributed talk at the IAU Symposium 334 "Rediscovering our Galaxy" in Potsdam, July 10-14, 2017

We present a photometric and spectroscopic study of multiple populations along the asymptotic-giant branch (AGB) of the intermediate-metallicity globular clusters (GCs) NGC2808 and NGC6121 (M4). Chemical abundances of O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Y, and Ce in AGB stars from high-resolution FLAMES+UVES@VLT spectra are reported for both clusters. Our spectroscopic results have been combined with multi-wavelength photometry from the HST UV survey of Galactic GCs and ground-based photometry, plus proper motions derived by combining stellar positions from ground-based images and Gaia DR1. Our analysis reveals that the AGBs of both clusters host multiple populations with different chemical composition. In M4 we have identified two main populations of stars with different Na/O content, lying on distinct AGBs in the mF438W vs. C_F275W,F336W,F438W and the V vs.C_U,B,I pseudo-CMDs. In the more massive and complex GC NGC2808 three groups of stars with different chemical abundances occupy different locations on the so-called "chromosome map" photometric diagram. The spectroscopic+photometric comparison of stellar populations along the AGB and the red giants of this GC suggests that the AGB hosts stellar populations with a range in helium abundances spanning from primordial up to high contents of Y~0.32. On the other hand, from our dataset, there is no evidence for stars with extreme helium abundance (Y~0.38) on the AGB, suggesting that the most He-rich stars of NGC2808 do not reach this phase., Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Our ability to model the shapes and strengths of iron lines in the solar spectrum is a critical test of the accuracy of the solar iron abundance, which sets the absolute zero-point of all stellar metallicities. We use an extensive 463-level Fe atom with new photoionisation cross-sections for FeI as well as quantum mechanical calculations of collisional excitation and charge transfer with neutral hydrogen; the latter effectively remove a free parameter that has hampered all previous line formation studies of Fe in non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE). For the first time, we use realistic 3D NLTE calculations of Fe for a quantitative comparison to solar observations. We confront our theoretical line profiles with observations taken at different viewing angles across the solar disk with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope. We find that 3D modelling well reproduces the observed centre-to-limb behaviour of spectral lines overall, but highlight aspects that may require further work, especially cross-sections for inelastic collisions with electrons. Our inferred solar iron abundance is log(eps(Fe))=7.48+-0.04., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Context. Red giant branch (RGB) stars are very bright objects in galaxies and are often used as standard candles. Interferometry is the ideal tool to characterize the dynamics and morphology of their atmospheres. Aims. We aim at precisely characterising the surface dynamics of a sample of RGB stars. Methods. We obtained interferometric observations for three RGB stars with the MIRC instrument mounted at the CHARA interfer- ometer. We looked for asymmetries on the stellar surfaces using limb-darkening models. Results. We measured the apparent diameters of HD197989 (Epsilon Cyg) = 4.61+-0.02 mas, HD189276 (HR7633) = 2.95+-0.01 mas, and HD161096 (Beta Oph) = 4.43+-0.01 mas. We detected departures from the centrosymmetric case for all three stars with the tendency of a greater effect for lower logg of the sample. We explored the causes of this signal and conclude that a possible explanation to the interferometric signal is the convection-related and/or the magnetic-related surface activity. However, it is necessary to monitor these stars with new observations, possibly coupled with spectroscopy, in order to firmly establish the cause., Comment: Accepted for publication as a Letter in Astronomy and Astrophysics, section 1. Letters to the Editor. The official date of acceptance is 06/03/2017