U.S.-Australia Cooperative Research: Abundances of Metal- Rich K Giants

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This project brings together two groups of astronomers who are actively working on the abundance patterns in the stellar populations of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. The U.S. team, headed by Donald Terndrup of The Ohio State University in cooperation with Ruth Peterson of the Lick Observatory, will collaborate with Michael Bessell of the Australian National Observatory and the Mount Stromlo Observatory and Elaine Sadler of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO). This award provides funds for the U.S. investigators to attend observing runs in Australia. Using other sources of support, Terndrup and Peterson will conduct further observations of bulge K giants at the Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile while Bessell and Sadler will do the same for globular cluster stars using Australian facilities. Specifically, the program will conduct observations of bulge and cluster stars to determine the abundance of oxygen and other alpha-capture elements. The relative abundances will generate information on the rate and manner of chemical enrichment in the bulge of the Galaxy and in metal-rich globular clusters. Increased understanding of the temperatures and compositions of K giants will be used to generate diagnostic indicators of temperature, metallicity and gravity for lower-resolution optical and infrared studies of metal-rich stars. The project, supported jointly by NSF and the Australian Department of Industry, Technology, and Commerce (DITAC) provides access to international expertise and unique observational facilities.