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We investigate the feasibility of robust abundances for selected neutron-capture elements (Ge, Bi, Hf, U) from near-UV spectroscopy with the CUBES instrument now in development for the Very Large Telescope. We use the CUBES end-to-end simulator to synthesise observations of the Ge I 3039 {\AA} and Hf II 3400 and 3719 {\AA} lines in a very metal-poor star, using the well-studied star CS 31082-001 as a template. From simulated 4 hr exposures, we recover estimated abundances to $\pm$0.1 dex for Ge for U $\sim$ 14.25 mag., and for Hf for U = 18 mag. These performances neatly highlight the powerful gain of CUBES for near-UV observations of targets that are two-to-three magnitudes fainter than the existing observations of CS 31082-001 (U = 12.5 mag.). We also investigate the weak Bi I 3025 {\AA} and U II 3860 {\AA} lines (for U $\sim$ 14.25 and 16mag., respectively), finding that simulated 4hr exposures should provide upper limits to these observationally challenging lines.

We present the analysis of three faint clusters of the Small Magellanic Cloud RZ82, HW42 and RZ158. We employed the SOAR telescope instrument SAM with adaptive optics, allowing us to reach to V~23-24 mag, unprecedentedly, a depth sufficient to measure ages of up to about 10-12Gyr. All three clusters are resolved to their centres, and the resulting colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) allow us to derive ages of 3.9, 2.6, and 4.8Gyr respectively. These results are significantly younger than previous determinations (7.1, 5.0, and 8.3Gyr, respectively), based on integrated photometry or shallower CMDs. We rule out older ages for these clusters based on deep photometry and statistical isochrone fitting. We also estimate metallicities for the three clusters of [Fe/H]=-0.68, -0.57 and -0.90, respectively. These updated ages and metallicities are in good agreement with the age-metallicity relation for the bulk of SMC clusters. Total cluster masses ranging from ~7-11x10^3Mo were estimated from integrated flux, consistent with masses estimated for other SMC clusters of similar ages. These results reduce the number of SMC clusters known to be older than about 5 Gyr and highlight the need of deep and spatially resolved photometry to determine accurate ages for older, low-luminosity SMC star clusters., Accepted for publication as MNRAS letter, 5 pages, 5 figures

The central part of the Galaxy hosts a multitude of stellar populations, including the spheroidal bulge stars, stars moved to the bulge through secular evolution of the bar, inner halo, inner thick disc, inner thin disc, as well as debris from past accretion events. We identified a sample of 58 candidate stars belonging to the stellar population of the spheroidal bulge, and analyse their abundances. The present calculations of Mg, Ca, and Si lines are in agreement with the ASPCAP abundances, whereas abundances of C, N, O, and Ce are re-examined. We find normal α-element enhancements in oxygen, similar to magnesium, Si, and Ca abundances, which are typical of other bulge stars surveyed in the optical in Baade’s Window. The enhancement of [O/Fe] in these stars suggests that they do not belong to accreted debris. No spread in N abundances is found, and none of the sample stars is N-rich, indicating that these stars are not second generation stars originated in globular clusters. Ce instead is enhanced in the sample stars, which points to an s-process origin such as due to enrichment from early generations of massive fast rotating stars, the so-called spinstars., RR acknowledges a CNPq master fellowship. TM acknowledges FAPESP postdoctoral fellowship no. 2018/03480-7. HE acknowledges a CAPES PhD fellowship. A.P.-V. and S.O.S. acknowledge the DGAPA-PAPIIT grant IA103122. SOS acknowledges a FAPESP PhD fellowship no. 2018/22044-3. SOS and MV acknowledge the support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, project number: 428473034). BB acknowledges grants from FAPESP, CNPq, and CAPES – Financial code 001. J.G.F-T gratefully acknowledges the grant support provided by Proyecto Fondecyt Iniciación No. 11220340, and also from ANID Concurso de Fomento a la Vinculación Internacional para Instituciones de Investigación Regionales (Modalidad corta duración) Proyecto No. FOVI210020, and from the ESO – Government of Chile Joint Committee 2021 (ORP 023/2021). D.G. gratefully acknowledges support from the ANID BASAL project ACE210002. D.G. also acknowledges financial support from the Dirección de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Universidad de La Serena through the Programa de Incentivo a la Investigación de Académicos (PIA-DIDULS). The work of V.M.P. is supported by NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. MZ was funded by ANID FONDECYT Regular 1191505, ANID Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS) under grant ICN12_009, the ANID BASAL Center for Astrophysics and Associated Technologies (CATA) through grants AFB170002, ACE210002 and FB210003. DM gratefully acknowledges support by the ANID BASAL projects ACE210002 and FB210003 and by Fondecyt Project No. 1220724. RR, BB, TM, HE, SOS, are part of the Brazilian Participation Group (BPG) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), from the Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia – LIneA, Brazil. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org. SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) / University of Tokyo, the Korean Participation Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observatório Nacional / MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University. This work makes use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) space mission Gaia. The Gaia mission website is https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia. The Gaia archive website is https://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia.

The Gaia mission has provided an invaluable wealth of astrometric data for more than a billion stars in our Galaxy. The synergy between Gaia astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopic surveys give us comprehensive information about the Milky Way. Using the Bayesian isochrone-fitting code StarHorse, we derive distances and extinctions for more than 10 million unique stars observed by both Gaia Data Release 3 as well as public spectroscopic surveys: GALAH DR3, LAMOST DR7 LRS, LAMOST DR7 MRS, APOGEE DR17, RAVE DR6, SDSS DR12 (optical spectra from BOSS and SEGUE), Gaia-ESO DR5 survey, and Gaia RVS part of Gaia DR3 release. We use StarHorse for the first time to derive stellar age for main-sequence turnoff and subgiant branch stars (MSTO-SGB), around 2.5 million stars with age uncertainties typically around 30%, 15% for only SGB stars, depending on the resolution of the survey. With the derived ages in hand, we investigate the chemical-age relations. In particular, the $\alpha$ and neutron-capture element ratios versus age in the solar neighbourhood show trends similar to previous works, validating our ages. We use the chemical abundances from local subgiant samples of GALAH DR3, APOGEE DR17 and LAMOST MRS DR7 to map groups with similar chemical compositions and StarHorse ages with the dimensionality reduction technique t-SNE and the clustering algorithm HDBSCAN. We identify three distinct groups in all three samples. Their kinematic properties confirm them to be the genuine chemical thick disk, the thin disk and a considerable number of young alpha-rich stars. We confirm that the genuine thick disk's kinematics and age properties are radically different from those of the thin disk and compatible with high-redshift (z$\approx$2) star-forming disks with high dispersion velocities., Comment: 27 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Catalogues can be downloaded at https://data.aip.de/

The information on Galactic assembly time is imprinted on the chemodynamics of globular clusters. This makes them important probes that help us to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. Discerning between in-situ and ex-situ origin of these objects is difficult when we study the Galactic bulge, which is the most complex and mixed component of the Milky Way. To investigate the early evolution of the Galactic bulge, we analysed the globular cluster NGC 6355. We derived chemical abundances and kinematic and dynamic properties by gathering information from high-resolution spectroscopy with FLAMES-UVES, photometry with the Hubble Space Telescope, and Galactic dynamic calculations applied to the globular cluster NGC 6355. We derive an age of $13.2\pm1.1$ Gyr and a metallicity of [Fe/H]$=-1.39\pm0.08$ for NGC 6355, with $\alpha$-enhancement of [$\alpha$/Fe]$=+0.37\pm0.11$. The abundance pattern of the globular cluster is compatible with bulge field RR Lyrae stars and in-situ well-studied globular clusters. The orbital parameters suggest that the cluster is currently confined within the bulge volume when we consider a heliocentric distance of $8.54\pm0.19$ kpc and an extinction coefficient of $R_V = 2.84\pm0.02$. NGC 6355 is highly likely to come from the main bulge progenitor. {Nevertheless, it still} has a low probability of being formed from an accreted event because its age is uncertain and because of the combined [Mg/Mn] [Al/Fe] abundance. Its relatively low metallicity with respect to old and moderately metal-poor inner Galaxy clusters may suggest a low-metallicity floor for globular clusters that formed in-situ in the early Galactic bulge., Comment: 20 pages, 26 figures, and 9 tables. Astronomy & Astrophysics, in press. Some minor corrections

The structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is very complex, in particular in the periphery that suffers more from the interactions with the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). A wealth of observational evidence has been accumulated revealing tidal tails and bridges made up of gas, stars and star clusters. Nevertheless, a full picture of the SMC outskirts is only recently starting to emerge with a 6D phase-space map plus age and metallicity using star clusters as tracers. In this work, we continue our analysis of another outer region of the SMC, the so-called West Halo, and combined it with the previously analysed Northern Bridge. We use both structures to define the Bridge and Counter-bridge trailing and leading tidal tails. These two structures are moving away from each other, roughly in the SMC-LMC direction. The West Halo form a ring around the SMC inner regions that goes up to the background of the Northern Bridge shaping an extended layer of the Counter-bridge. Four old Bridge clusters were identified at distances larger than 8 kpc from the SMC centre moving towards the LMC, which is consistent with the SMC-LMC closest distance of 7.5 kpc when the Magellanic Bridge was formed about 150Myr ago; this shows that the Magellanic Bridge was not formed only by pulled gas, but it also removed older stars from the SMC during its formation. We also found age and metallicity radial gradients using projected distances on sky, which are vanished when we use the real 3D distances., 14 pages, 8 figures + appendix. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The ‘First Stars’ programme revealed the metal-poor halo star CS 31082-001 to be r-process and actinide rich, including the first measurement of a uranium abundance for an old star. To better characterize and understand such rare objects, we present the first abundance estimates of three elements (Be, V, Cu) for CS 31082-001 from analysis of its near-ultraviolet spectrum. Beryllium is rarely measured in giant stars, and we confirm that its abundance in this star is low due to the rather cool effective temperature that causes destruction of both Be and Li in its atmosphere. Vanadium and copper are iron-peak elements that are starting to be used as chemical-tagging indicators to investigate the origin of stellar populations. We find V and Cu abundances for CS 31082-001 that are comparable to other metal-poor stars, and present new chemical evolution models to investigate our results. In the case of V, extra nucleosynthesis due to interaction of neutrinos with matter is included in the models to be able to reproduce the measured abundance. Given the availability of high-quality spectroscopy of CS 31082-001, we also explore other atomic lines in the near-ultraviolet as a template for future studies of metal-poor stars with the planned CUBES instrument in development for the Very Large Telescope.

We investigate the inner regions of the Milky Way using data from APOGEE and Gaia EDR3. Our inner Galactic sample has more than 26 500 stars within |XGal|< 5 kpc, |YGal|< 3.5 kpc, |ZGal|< 1 kpc, and we also carry out the analysis for a foreground-cleaned subsample of 8000 stars that is more representative of the bulge-bar populations. These samples allow us to build chemo-dynamical maps of the stellar populations with vastly improved detail. The inner Galaxy shows an apparent chemical bimodality in key abundance ratios [α/Fe], [C/N], and [Mn/O], which probe different enrichment timescales, suggesting a star formation gap (quenching) between the high- and low-α populations. Using a joint analysis of the distributions of kinematics, metallicities, mean orbital radius, and chemical abundances, we can characterize the different populations coexisting in the innermost regions of the Galaxy for the first time. The chemo-kinematic data dissected on an eccentricity-|Z|max plane reveal the chemical and kinematic signatures of the bar, the thin inner disc, and an inner thick disc, and a broad metallicity population with large velocity dispersion indicative of a pressure-supported component. The interplay between these different populations is mapped onto the different metallicity distributions seen in the eccentricity-|Z|max diagram consistently with the mean orbital radius and Vφ distributions. A clear metallicity gradient as a function of |Z|max is also found, which is consistent with the spatial overlapping of different populations. Additionally, we find and chemically and kinematically characterize a group of counter-rotating stars that could be the result of a gas-rich merger event or just the result of clumpy star formation during the earliest phases of the early disc that migrated into the bulge. Finally, based on 6D information, we assign stars a probability value of being on a bar orbit and find that most of the stars with large bar orbit probabilities come from the innermost 3 kpc, with a broad dispersion of metallicity. Even stars with a high probability of belonging to the bar show chemical bimodality in the [α/Fe] versus [Fe/H] diagram. This suggests bar trapping to be an efficient mechanism, explaining why stars on bar orbits do not show a significant, distinct chemical abundance ratio signature.

The properties of the globular clusters located within 20° × 20° of the Galactic Center are discussed. In particular their spatial distribution, metallicities and ages are presented and discussed in the context of different scenarios of bulge formation.

Consistently with a trend observed in recent past triennial reports, progress in the theory of stellar atmospheres continues to be made in two different directions: 1) the traditional areas of continuum and line radiation transfer, line blanketing, atomic physics and atmospheric structures controlled by the joint conditions of radiative and hydrostatic equilibrium, and 2) in areas of emerging interest such as oscillations, velocity fields, winds and mass loss, chromospheres, coronae and magnetic phenomena. Particular attention is devoted also to the accurate determination of stellar elemental abundances and their implications for stellar interior structure and evolution as well as for the chemical enrichment of the Galaxy.

Globular clusters in the Galactic bulge form a flattened system, extending from the Galactic center to about 4.5 kpc from the Sun (Barbuy et al. 1997). A study of abundance ratios in these clusters is very important for a more complete understanding of the bulge formation. In this work we present a spectroscopic analysis of individual stars in NGC 6553. This cluster is a key one because it is located at d⊙ ≍ 5.1 kpc, therefore relatively close to us, and at the same time it is representative of the Galactic bulge stellar population: (a) Ortolani et al. (1995) showed that NGC 6553 and NGC 6528 show very similar Colour-Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs), and NGC 6528 is located at d⊙ ≍ 7.83 kpc, very close to the Galactic center; (b) the stellar populations of the Baade Window is also very similar to that of NGC 6553 and NGC 6528 as Ortolani et al. (1995) have shown by comparing their luminosity functions.

In the present work, we present results of simulations for star and galaxy counts using a Galaxy and Large-Scale Structure Model (respectively) towards the VVV survey region. In total there are around 3 billion and 2 million simulated stars and galaxies, respectively, up to the survey limiting magnitude. The simulations were performed using the most recent and realistic extinction models. In the case of the galaxy simulations, these come from the semi-analytic galaxy formation model of [Bower et al., MNRAS 370, 645 (2006)] applied to the Millennium simulation [Springel et al., Nature 435, 629 (2005)]. Our results consist of color-color and color-magnitude diagrams in the space of colors (JHKYZ) for stars and galaxies. They also include the expected observed distribution of background galaxies, as well as the expected number of stars that will be observed by VVV in any range of magnitude, color, spectral type and distance for each galactic component (disk, bulge and halo), which is also useful for several VVV projects.

Element ratios in two stars of NGC 6553 and one star in NGC 6528 reveal that a-elements are enhanced relative to Fe. The metallicity [Fe/H] -0.5 combined to overabundances of several elements gives an overall metallicity close to solar for both clusters

Very few abundance analyses of individual stars in metal-poor globular clusters in the galactic bulge are available. The main purpose of this study is to derive abundances in individual stars of such clusters, in order to establish their abundance pattern, trying to characterize the oldest bulge stellar populations.

Element ratios in two stars of NGC 6553 and one star in NGC 6528 reveal that α-elements are enhanced relative to Fe. The metallicity [Fe/H] ≈ −0.6, but taking into account the overabundances of several elements, the overall metallicity is close to solar.

Velocity dispersions and Mg2 indices were measured from CCD spectra of 13 S0 box-shaped galaxies and 5 ellipticals. Evidence for a different relation between velocity dispersion and metallicity, relative to ellipticals, was found for our S0 sample; we attribute this difference to the S0 disk component, affecting both the mean velocity dispersion and mean metallicity.

We use information contained in CMDs of metal-rich globular clusters, in order to compute a grid synthetic spectra for 10 evolutionary stages. These synthetic spectra are added up to reproduce the composite spectra of S0/E galaxies.

The oxygen-to-iron ratio in the different stellar populations is a tracer of the chemical enrichment by supernovae of types II and I: SNII/SNI along the Galaxy lifetime, given that the bulk of oxygen is produced and ejected by massive stars (M > 10 M⊙), whereas the bulk of iron is produced by SNI of intermediate masses. Otherwise, the O overabundances are generally accompanied by α-elements (24Mg, 28Si, 40Ca, 48Ti) overabundances (Wheeler et al, 1989).

Different methods have been used to derive velocity dispersions of stellar populations in bulges of galaxies. In all cases, the spectrum of a K giant is used as template: the stellar spectrum convolved with the appropriate gaussian, the Fourier transform technique, or the cross-correlation technique (see Dalle Ore et al., 1991, for a review).

We have computed synthetic spectra of the infrared B I transitions at 1.166 and 1.624 μm in order to examine the possibility of abundance determination by using these lines. We found that the IR boron lines are better observed in cool giants and supergiants. S/N > 150 and R ≈ 60000 are required in order to determine the boron abundances.

Five giants and 11 subgiants of the metal-poor globular cluster NGC 6397 are analysed. In this Poster we present the lithium abundances derived. The present Li abundances and those of turnoff stars by Pasquini & Molaro (1996) are complementary in terms of stellar evolution stage, and show the Li abundances decreasing off the main sequence along the red giant branch.

We have obtained CCD BVRI colour-magnitude diagrams for a series of disk globular clusters, improving parameters and detecting a new one: Lyngå 7. Using the magnitude difference between turn-off and horizontal branch Δ(TO-HB) as an age discriminator, and their spatial distribution we compare old disk open clusters, young halo globular clusters, and metal-rich disk globular clusters, obtaining clues to the Galaxy formation process.

TiO bands at λ 620 nm are synthesized. The behaviour of these bands as a function of stellar parameters is studied. Application to composite spectra of one galactic bulge globular cluster and to bulges of elliptical galaxies is also carried out. TiO bands may be useful metallicity indicators.

Low resolution spectra of two stars of the Baade Window were obtained with the 1.5m telescope at ESO. Their temperatures and gravities are obtained by using their location in colour magnitude diagrams of bulge clusters, and through synthetic spectra fitting, their metallicities are derived.

Velocity dispersions and Mg2 indices were measured from CCD spectra of 13 S0 box-shaped galaxies and 5 ellipticals. Evidence for a different relation between velocity dispersion and metallicity, relative to ellipticals, was found for our S0 sample; we attribute this difference to the S0 disk component, affecting both the mean velocity dispersion and mean metallicity.

We use information contained in CMDs of metal-rich globular clusters, in order to compute a grid synthetic spectra for 10 evolutionary stages. These synthetic spectra are added up to reproduce the composite spectra of S0/E galaxies.

Through computed synthetic spectra for individual stars in the Mg2 index region where different values of [Mg/Fe] were considered, and observed features Fe5270 and Fe5335 in a sample of 80 stars, we derived relations Mg2 and = f(Teff, log g, [Fe/H], [Mg/Fe]). These relations were used to compute integrated indices for single aged populations, where number counts in colour-magnitude diagrams were used. A multi-population model was then built through a convolution of the single stellar population indices with a metallicity and luminosity distribution for elliptical galaxies, where a chemical evolution model includes enrichment by type II and I supernovae. A grid of 80 multi-population models was computed, by varying the efficiency of star formation rate. In Figure 1 are shown the results for [Mg/Fe] = 0.0, 0.3 and 0.6 compared to observational data by Worthey et al. (1992). An average value of [Mg/Fe] = 0.3 is found for the sample ellipticals.

Spectra of single-aged old stellar populations of metallicities in the range −1.0 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ +0.5 are built in the wavelength range 6950-7550 Å including TiO bands, by combining synthetic spectra of individual stars. Two approaches are applied: one for moderately metal-poor populations, entirely based on isochrones, and the other one applied to the metal-rich Galactic globular clusters, based on isochrones for the main sequence and data of observed colour-magnitude diagrams for the evolved stages. Abundance ratios of [α/Fe] = +0.3 are adopted for populations of [Fe/H] = −1.0, −0.5, and both 0.0 and +0.3 for the more metal-rich ones.

The Caspec échelle spectrograph at the ESO 3.6m telescope was used to obtain high resolution spectra for Arp 1145, and the star 2 of the metal-rich cluster Terzan 1. Arp 1145 was selected from Pickles & van der Kruit (1990). The star Tz1-2 was selected from Terzan 1 BVRI photometry carried out by Ortolani, Bica & Barbuy (1993) New HST CMDs show that Terzan 1 appears to be located nearby the Galactic center.

We have investigated the V, B – V “clump” morphology of the globular cluster NGC 6553 (Ortolani et al. 1990, OBB90) through synthetic horizontal branch (SHB) models. Catelan's (1993) computations were extended to more metal-rich compositions, following Sweigart (1987) and Castellani et al. (1991), and transposed to the observational plane on the basis of VandenBerg's (1992) colour transformations and bolometric corrections. Observational scatter has also been added. In general, the SHB models are very clumpy, unlike the observed feature, which seems extended and peculiarly tilted. However, for particular combinations of helium abundance, metallicity, and mean mass on the HB, tilted models result, being however significantly less sloped and wider than observed. The NGC 6553 field is differentially reddened by ΔE(B – V) ≈ 0.06 (OBB90), which has been modelled, but which implies a CMD scatter which is smaller than the one originating from evolution away from the zero-age HB alone. We have also investigated the age of the cluster (ΔV method) and location of the red giant branch “bump,” in comparison with 47 Tuc. Since the helium and α-elements abundances are not known for NGC 6553, three chemical evolution scenarios have been considered, following the method of de Freitas Pacheco (1993). Details can be found elsewhere (Catelan et al. 1994).

Velocity dispersions and Mg 2 indices were measured from CCD spectra of 13 box-shaped galaxies and 5 ellipticals. Evidences for a different relation between velocity dispersion and metallicity, relative to ellipticals, was found for our SO sample; we attribute this difference to the SO disk component, affecting both the mean velocity dispersion and mean metallicity. In a tentative to reproduce the integrated bulge spectra of our sample galaxies, we have built composite spectra using a grid of synthetic spectra, where the basic parameters were assumed to be similar to those of galactic bulge globular clusters

The amount of species produced in the nucleosynthesis tidally induced by a large black hole on infalling stars is computed. The total mass of isotopic species N-14, N-15, Mg-25, Mg-26, and Al-26, Al-27 produced in this process along the first billion years of the Galaxy life are compared to possible observational evidences. 35 refs.

High resolution CCD spectra were obtained in the region λλ6290-6330 A containing the |OI| λ6300.3 A line for a sample of halo giants. Synthetic spectra were computed to derive their oxygen abundances. A mean value [O/Fe] ≃+0.35 is obtained.