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Astron. Astrophys. 362, 666-672 (2000)
First UVES observations of beryllium in very metal-poor stars *
F. Primas 1,
P. Molaro 2,
P. Bonifacio 2 and
V. Hill 1
1 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
2 Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G.B. Tiepolo 11, 34100 Trieste, Italy
Received 14 April 2000 / Accepted 14 August 2000
Abstract
We report on a attempt to detect beryllium in two dwarf stars of
the Galactic halo with metallicities below one thousandth solar. The
data were obtained during the Commissioning of the Ultraviolet and
Visible Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) mounted on the ESO VLT Kueyen
telescope, and show the potential of UVES for studies in the
UV-optical domain. We claim a beryllium detection in LP 815-43
([Fe/H] ![[FORMULA]](img1.gif)
2.95,
[Be/H] = -13.09) at the 99.7% confidence level, while only
an upper limit can be set for the second target CD-24o17504
([Fe/H] 3.30,
[Be/H] ![[FORMULA]](img2.gif)
13.39). These results
suggest that the trend of beryllium with metallicity keeps decreasing
as lower metallicities are probed, with no evidence for flattening. In
CD-24o17504 we also analyzed the LiI line at
6708 Å, and derived a lithium abundance close to the Spite
plateau.
Key words: stars:
Population II 
stars:
abundances
stars:
atmospheres
Galaxy: halo
* Based on public data released from the UVES Commissioning at the VLT/Kueyen telescope, European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile
Send offprint requests to: F. Primas (fprimas@eso.org)
Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Observations and data reduction
- 3. Stellar parameters
- 4. Spectrum synthesis analysis
- 5. The beryllium abundance and its implications
- 6. The lithium abundance of CD-24o17504: an important data point
- 7. Concluding remarks
- Acknowledgements
- References
© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000
Online publication: October 24, 2000
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