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This paper is a revised abundance analysis of four yellow supergiant stars Cepheids which are located in the Galactic nucleus. The results are based on the spectra secured with the help of Subaru telescope, which are of the better quality comparing to previously analysed spectra taken with the Infrared Telescope Facility. A significantly improved method of the effective temperature determination of program stars, which is based on the calibrating relations between the temperature and line depth ratios, was applied. The present results confirmed our previous finding about the solar metallicity level at the Galaxy centre. It is very likely that the four stars of our program were born from an interstellar medium having homogeneous chemical properties, since all the stars are located close to each other, have close pulsation periods, and hence the age. However, one of the stars has a somewhat increased abundance of all studied elements compared to the abundance in the other three stars. A possible reason of this fact is discussed.

For the first time, we describe a detection of the emission in the infrared (IR) He i triplet at 10 830 Å in the classical Cepheid X Cyg. Emissions are clearly seen at phases approximately from 0.25 to 0.85. The IR redshifted He i emission is excited by shock wave in the uppermost layers of the star’s envelope, in its falling layers. This is a first detection of the helium IR emission in the classical Cepheids.

For the first time, a direct NLTE analysis of carbon and nitrogen lines in the spectra of nine RR Lyrae stars was carried out. We have determined the abundances of these elements together with oxygen, and have shown that the nitrogen content is increased in metallicity deficient program stars. We conclude that this is a sign of the first dredge up, which occurred at the previous stage of the red giant branch, and brought material processed in an incomplete CNO cycle to the surface of the star. This effect is significantly enhanced by thermohaline (extra-) mixing, which is more effective for metal-poor RR Lyrae stars. This is clearly seen in the plot showing that C/N ration in our sample of stars gradually decreases as metallicity decreases from about --0.2 to --2. Oxygen abundance depends on metallicity in a similar way to what we see in the Population II stars., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures Accepted by Astronomische Nachrichten / Astronomical Notes

Stellar parameters of 25 planet-hosting stars and abundances of Li, C, O, Na, Mg, Al, S, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zn, Y, Zr, Ba, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm and Eu, were studied based on homogeneous high resolution spectra and uniform techniques. The iron abundance [Fe/H] and key elements (Li, C, O, Mg, Si) indicative of the planet formation, as well as the dependencies of [El/Fe] on $T_{cond}$, were analyzed. The iron abundances determined in our sample stars with detected massive planets range within -0.3= 0.48 +/-0.07 and =-0.07 +/-0.07, which are slightly lower than solar ones. The Mg/Si ratios range from 0.83 to 0.95 for four stars in our sample and from 1.0 to 1.86 for the remaining 21 stars. Various slopes of [El/Fe] vs. Tcond were found. The dependencies of the planetary mass on metallicity, the lithium abundance, the C/O and Mg/Si ratios, and also on the [El/Fe]-Tcond slopes were considered., Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, Accepted in MNRAS

Aims. In a previous publication, we reported the first detection of emission in the infrared (IR) triplet at 10 830 Å in the spectra of the classical Cepheid X Cyg. Emission is detectable at phases from approximately 0.25 to 0.90. We present and discuss further information on the chromosphere activity of this star, namely International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) archive data concerning the emission in the h and k Mg II doublet, and near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectra in the vicinity of the H and K Ca II doublet. We also present rough estimates of the chromosphere conditions and semi-empirical modelling of the observed emissions in He I triplet. Methods. A study of the emissions in UV lines of Ca II and Mg II, and IR lines of He I suggests that the emissions observed at certain phases can be explained within the framework of the Gillet's phenomenological model of shock waves in pulsating atmospheres, which was developed from a study of the Hα behaviour in X Cyg spectra. We used the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) approximation and a simple model of this star's chromosphere for the analysis of the chromosphere indicator profiles. Results. We show that under certain assumptions about the properties of the chromosphere, it is possible to describe the presence or absence of emission in the IR lines of He I and Ca II, and UV lines of Ca II and Mg II.

For the classical Cepheid V1033 Cyg we have constructed an O—C diagram spanning a time interval of 117 years. The O—C diagram has the shape of a parabola, which has made it possible to determine for the first time the quadratic light elements and to calculate the rate of evolutionary increase in the period dP/dt = 18.19 (±0.08) syr−1, in agreement with the results of theoretical calculations for the first crossing of the instability strip. Thus, V1033 Cyg is the second actually observed Cepheid (after α UMi) that crosses the instability strip for the first time.

Context. The Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) on board the Gaia satellite is not provided with a wavelength calibration lamp. It uses its observations of stars with known radial velocity to derive the dispersion relation. To derive an accurate radial velocity calibration, a precise knowledge of the line spread function (LSF) of the RVS is necessary. Good-quality ground-based observations in the wavelength range of the RVS are highly desired to determine the LSF. Aims. Several radial velocity standard stars are available to the Gaia community. The highest possible number of calibrators will surely allow us to improve the accuracy of the radial velocity. Because the LSF may vary across the focal plane of the RVS, a large number of high-quality spectra for the LSF calibration may allow us to better sample the properties of the focal plane. Methods. We selected a sample of stars to be observed with UVES at the Very Large Telescope, in a setting including the wavelength range of RVS, that are bright enough to allow obtaining high-quality spectra in a short time. We also selected stars that lack chemical investigation in order to increase the sample of bright, close by stars with a complete chemical inventory. Results. We here present the chemical analysis of the first sample of 80 evolved stars. The quality of the spectra is very good, therefore we were able to derive abundances for 20 elements. The metallicity range spanned by the sample is about 1 dex, from slightly metal-poor to solar metallicity. We derived the Rb abundance for all stars and investigated departures from local thermodynamical equilibrium (NLTE) in the formation of its lines. Conclusions. The sample of spectra is of good quality, which is useful for a Gaia radial velocity calibration. The Rb NLTE effects in this stellar parameters range are small but sometimes non-negligible, especially for spectra of this good quality.

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We collected over 6000 high-resolution spectra of four dozen field RR Lyrae (RRL) variables pulsating either in the fundamental (39 RRab) or in the first overtone (9 RRc) mode. We measured radial velocities (RVs) of four strong metallic and four Balmer lines along the entire pulsational cycle and derived RV amplitudes with accuracies better than 1$-$2~\kmsec. The new amplitudes were combined with literature data for 23~RRab and 3~RRc stars (total sample 74 RRLs) which allowed us to investigate the variation of the Bailey diagram (photometric amplitude versus period) when moving from optical to mid-infrared bands and to re-cast the Bailey diagram in terms of RV amplitudes. We found that RV amplitudes for RRab are minimally affected by nonlinear phenomena (shocks) and multi-periodicity (Blazhko effect). The RV slope ($\log P$--A(V$_r$)) when compared with the visual slope ($\log P$--A($V$)) is shallower and the dispersion, at fixed period, decreases by a factor of two. We constructed homogeneous sets of Horizontal Branch evolutionary models and nonlinear, convective pulsation models of RRLs to constrain the impact of evolutionary effects on their pulsation properties. Evolution causes, on the Bailey diagram based on RV amplitudes, a modest variation in pulsation period and a large dispersion in amplitude. The broad dispersion in period of the Bailey diagram is mainly caused by variation in RRL intrinsic parameters (stellar mass, chemical composition). Empirical evidence indicates that RV amplitudes are an optimal diagnostic for tracing the mean effective temperature across the RRab instability strip., 14 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted on ApJ Letter

Atmospheric parameters and chemical compositions for ten stars with metallicities in the region of -2.2< [Fe/H], Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures

We have made the first attempt to derive the chemical properties of the Galactic disc at its very central part using high-resolution infrared spectroscopic observations of four classical Cepheids. These stars are located at Galactocentric distances smaller than 1 kpc. All investigated stars show near-to-solar elemental abundances. By combining these new data with our previous studies, our results suggest that the radial distribution of iron abundance on a logarithmic scale gradually increases from the outskirts of the Galactic disc to Galactocentric distances of about 2–4 kpc. There, it reaches a maximal value of about +0.4 dex, and then declines sharply to about the solar value at the Galactic Centre.

We report the discovery of two new lithium-rich Cepheids in the Milky Way (A(Li) ≈ 2.9 dex) among the targets of the MAGIC spectroscopic survey with the Southern African Large Telescope spectrographs. The 6707 Å Li feature is usually not detectable in the atmosphere of Cepheids. Only three Cepheids (two in the Milky Way and one in the Large Magellanic Cloud) had been reported so far with high lithium abundances. We examine the possibility that the Li-rich Cepheids are evolving towards the red giant branch, crossing the instability strip for the first time, as well as other possible scenarios. The two stars are mixed-mode Cepheids pulsating simultaneously in the first and in the second overtone modes. We briefly discuss the possible connection between their unusual chemical composition and their pulsational properties.

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Indexación: Scopus. We are grateful to George Wallerstein for valuable discussions and comments and for kindly provided spectra from APO. The authors thank the anonymous referee for her/his very valuable comments that significantly improved the paper. I.Y. thanks project ALMA-CONICYT 31150029 for support. B.L. acknowledges support from Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 881 ‘The Milky Way System’ (subproject A5) of the German Research Foundation (DFG). V.K., S.A., and S.K. acknowledge SCOPES grant no. IZ73Z0-152485 for financial support. V.K. and S.A. kindly acknowledge financial support from the Kenilworth Fund obtained through CRDF. The chemical composition of 28 Population II Cepheids and one RR Lyrae variable has been studied using high-resolution spectra. The chemical composition of W Vir variable stars (with periods longer than 8 d) is typical for the halo and thick disc stars. However, the chemical composition of BL Her variables (with periods of 0.8-4 d) is drastically different, although it does not differ essentially from that of the stars belonging to globular clusters. In particular, the sodium overabundance ([Na/Fe] ≈ 0.4) is reported for most of these stars, and the Na-O anticorrelation is also possible. The evolutionary tracks for BL Her variables (with a progenitor mass value of 0.8 solar masses) indicate that mostly helium-overabundant stars (Y = 0.30-0.35) can fall into the instability strip region. We suppose that it is the helium overabundance that accounts not only for the existence of BL Her variable stars but also for the observed abnormalities in the chemical composition of this small group of pulsating variables. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/477/2/2276/4935186

International audience; We have analyzed 10 high-resolution spectra of Type II Cepheids with periods less than 3 days. We find that they clearly separate into two groups: those with near or slightly below solar metallicities, and those with [Fe/H] between -1.5 and -2.0. While the former are usually called BL Her stars, we suggest that the latter be called UY Eri stars. The UY Eri subclass appears to be similar to the short period variables in globular clusters of the Galactic Halo. Globular clusters with [Fe/H] > -1.0 almost never have Type II Cepheids.

International audience; We analyzed 62 high-resolution spectra of 30 Galactic Field RR Lyrae-type stars with the aim of deriving their atmospheric parameters (T eff , {log}g, V t ), metallicity ([Fe/H]), radial velocities, and NLTE abundances of oxygen and sodium. We found that there is no clear anti-correlation between [O/Fe] and [Na/Fe] as is seen in globular clusters. On this basis, we conclude that the majority of field RR Lyrae-type stars should hardly be considered to be remnants of the dissolution of globular clusters.

We gathered more than 1130 high-resolution optical spectra for more than 250 Galactic classical Cepheids. The spectra were collected with different optical spectrographs: UVES at VLT, HARPS at 3.6m, FEROS at 2.2m MPG/ESO, and STELLA. To improve the effective temperature estimates, we present more than 150 new line depth ratio (LDR) calibrations that together with similar calibrations already available in the literature allowed us to cover a broad range in wavelength (between 5348 and 8427 angstrom) and in effective temperatures (between 3500 and 7700 K). This means the unique opportunity to cover both the hottest and coolest phases along the Cepheid pulsation cycle and to limit the intrinsic error on individual measurements at the level of ~100 K. Thanks to the high signal-to-noise ratio of individual spectra we identified and measured hundreds of neutral and ionized lines of heavy elements, and in turn, have the opportunity to trace the variation of both surface gravity and microturbulent velocity along the pulsation cycle. The accuracy of the physical parameters and the number of Fe I (more than one hundred) and Fe II (more than ten) lines measured allowed us to estimate mean iron abundances with a precision better than 0.1 dex. Here we focus on 14 calibrating Cepheids for which the current spectra cover either the entire or a significant portion of the pulsation cycle. The current estimates of the variation of the physical parameters along the pulsation cycle and of the iron abundances agree quite well with similar estimates available in the literature. Independent homogeneous estimates of both physical parameters and metal abundances based on different approaches that can constrain possible systematics are highly encouraged., 25 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables

A large number of high-dispersion spectra of classical Cepheids were obtained in the region of the CaII H+K spectral lines. The analysis of these spectra allowed us to detect the presence of a strong Balmer line, H$\epsilon$, for several Cepheids, interpreted as the signature of a blue companion: the presence of a sufficiently bright blue companion to the Cepheid results in a discernible strengthening of the CaII H + Hepsilon line relative to the CaII K line. We investigated 103 Cepheids, including those with known hot companions (B5-B6 main-sequence stars) in order to test the method. We could confirm the presence of a companion to WW Car and FN Vel (the existence of the former was only suspected before) and we found that these companions are blue hot stars. The method remains efficient when the orbital velocity changes in a binary system cannot be revealed and other methods of binarity detection are not efficient., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, published on MNRAS in March 2015

We present an in-depth study of metal-poor stars, based high resolution spectra combined with newly released astrometric data from Gaia, with special attention to observational uncertainties. The results are compared to those of other studies, including Gaia benchmark stars. Chemical evolution models are discussed, highlighting few puzzles that are still affecting our understanding of stellar nucleosynthesis and of the evolution of our Galaxy.

Recently an increasing number of studies were devoted to measure the abundances of neutron-capture elements heavier than iron in stars belonging to Galactic Open Clusters (OCs). OCs span a sizeable range in metallicity -0.6, Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, accepted to MNRAS

Context: Cepheids are excellent tracers of young stellar populations. They play a crucial role in astrophysics as standard candles. The chemistry of classical Cepheids in the Milky Way is now quite well-known. Despite a much larger sample, the chemical composition of Magellanic Cepheids has been only scarcely investigated. Aims: For the first time, we study the chemical composition of several Cepheids located in the same populous cluster: NGC 1866, in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). To also investigate the chemical composition of Cepheids at lower metallicity, four targets are located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Our sample allows us to increase the number of Cepheids with known metallicities in the LMC/SMC by 20%/25% and the number of Cepheids with detailed chemical composition in the LMC/SMC by 46%/50%. Methods: We use canonical spectroscopic analysis to determine the chemical composition of Cepheids and provide abundances for a good number of $\alpha$, iron-peak and neutron-capture elements. Results: We find that six Cepheids in the LMC cluster NGC 1866 have a very homogeneous chemical composition, also consistent with red giant branch (RGB) stars in the cluster. Period--age relations that include no or average rotation indicate that all the Cepheids in NGC 1866 have a similar age and therefore belong to the same stellar population. Our results are in good agreement with theoretical models accounting for luminosity and radial velocity variations. Using distances based on period-luminosity relations in the near- or mid-infrared, we investigate for the first time the metallicity distribution of the young population in the SMC in the depth direction. Preliminary results show no metallicity gradient along the SMC main body, but our sample is small and does not contain Cepheids in the inner few degrees of the SMC., Comment: Accepted in A&A

Barium is a neutron capture element, that, in open clusters, is frequently over-abundant with respect to the Iron. A clear explanation for this is still missing. Additionally, its gradient across the Galactic disk is poorly constrained. We measure the abundance of yttrium and barium using the synthetic spectrum method from UVES high-resolution spectra of eight distant open clusters, namely Ruprecht 4, Ruprecht 7, Berkeley 25, Berkeley 73, Berkeley 75, NGC 6192, NGC 6404, and NGC 6583. The barium abundance was estimated using NLTE approximation. We confirm that Barium is indeed over-abundant in most clusters, especially young clusters. Finally, we investigated the trend of yttrium and barium abundances as a function of distance in the Galaxy and ages. Several scenarios for the barium over-abundance are then discussed., 9 pages, 10 figures

Based on our compiled catalogue of positions, velocities, ages, and abundances of nine chemical elements for 221 classical Cepheids, we analyze the dependences of the relative abundances of α-elements as well as rapid and slow neutron capture elements on metallicity, space velocity components, and Galactocentric distance. We have found that the relative abundances of all elements in Cepheids do not depend on velocity but increase with Galactocentric distance and decrease with increasing metallicity, just as in thin-disk dwarfs and giants. In Cepheids, however, the [α/Fe]-[Fe/H] relation lies below, while the [r/Fe]-[Fe/H] and [s/Fe]-[Fe/H] relations lie above the analogous sequences for dwarfs and giants. We hypothesize that upon reaching a nearly solar metallicity in the interstellar medium of the thin disk, the most massive stars ceased to explode as type II supernovae, which mostly enriched the interstellar medium with α-elements. As a result, an underabundance of α-elements and a slight overabundance of r-process elements, which are ejected into the interstellar medium by less massive (8–10 M ⊙) type II supernovae, were formed in the next generations of stars. The overabundance of s-process elements in Cepheids can be explained by the fact that some of the s-elements were produced in the weak s-process in the interiors of massive stars, which may be able to eject the upper parts of their envelopes even without any explosion like asymptotic giant branch stars. And since such massive stars, exploding as type II supernovae, also enriched the interstellar medium with a considerable amount of iron atoms, the [s/Fe] ratios (along with [r/Fe]) in the next generations of stars must be higher in their absence.

We have derived the abundances of 36 chemical elements in one Cepheid star, ASAS 181024--2049.6, located R$_{\rm G}= 2.53$ kpc from the Galactic center. This star falls within a region of the inner thin disc poorly sampled in Cepheids. Our spectral analysis shows that iron, magnesium, silicon, calcium and titanium LTE abundances in that star support the presence of a plateau-like abundance distribution in the thin disc within 5 kpc of the Galactic center, as previously suggested by \cite{Maret15}. If confirmed, the flattening of the abundance gradient within that region could be the result of a decrease in the star formation rate due to dynamic effects, possibly from the central Galactic bar., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

To identify the pulsation mode of three low-amplitude classical Cepheids, namely V1334 Cyg, V440 Per and V636 Cas, we use absolute magnitudes which are based upon Mv–Fe II/Fe I line depth relations. We determine that V1334 Cyg is pulsating in the first overtone, and that V440 Per and V636 Cas are fundamental mode pulsators. Their low amplitudes are due to their position close to the edge of the instability strip.

The aim of this work is to derive precise reddenings for 31 Cepheids using multiphase high- resolution spectroscopic observations and literature-derived colors. Each individual reddening valuewas determined as a difference between the observed (BV) value and a calculated (BV) value based on Castelli stellar model atmospheres and atmosphere parameters (effective temperature and gravity) previously determined through high- resolution spectroscopic analysis. This procedure was repeated for all pulsational phases at which spectra were obtained (typically 11 spectra for each star). After that, the mean reddening value for a given Cepheid was obtained. The reddening values derived were compared to values based on the use of distances and multiband photometry, reaching the general conclusion that reddening derived in this manner agrees with those from other methods.

The oxygen 7771-4 A triplet is a good indicator of luminosity in A-G supergiants. However, its strength also depends on other atmospheric parameters. In this study, we present the luminosity calibrations, where, for the first time, the effects of the effective temperature, microturbulent velocity, surface gravity, and the abundance have been disentangled. The calibrations are derived on the basis of a dataset of high-dispersion spectra of 60 yellow supergiants with highly reliable luminosities and accurate atmospheric parameters. This allowed to bring the uncertainty of the triplet-based absolute magnitudes down to 0.26 mag. The calibrations are suitable for spectral types F0-K0 and luminosity classes I-II, covering absolute magnitudes Mv from -1.0 to -10 mag.

We propose a statistical method for decomposition of contributions to iron production from various sources: Type II supernovae and the subpopulations of Type Ia supernovae, prompt (their progenitors are short-lived stars with ages lower than ∼100 Myr) and tardy (their progenitors are long-lived stars with ages >100 Myr). To do that, we develop a theory of oxygen and iron synthesis that takes into account the influence of the spiral arms on the amount of the above elements synthesized by both Type II supernovae and prompt Type Ia supernovae. In the framework of the theory, we processed statistically the new, more precise, observational data on Cepheid abundances, which, as is well known, demonstrate non-trivial radial distributions of oxygen and iron in the Galactic disc with bends in the gradients. In our opinion, such fine structure in the distribution of elements along the Galactic disc enables one to decompose the amount of iron unambiguously into three components produced by the above three sources. In addition, by means of our statistical methods we solve this task without any preliminary suppositions about the ratios between the proportions of iron synthesized by the above sources. The total mass supplied to the Galactic disc during its life by all types of supernovae is ∼(4.0 ± 0.4) × 10 7 M� , while the mass of iron occurring in the present interstellar medium (ISM) is ∼(1.20 ± 0.05) × 10 7 M� , i.e. about two thirds of iron is contained in stars and

Luminous FG supergiants can be used as extragalactic distance indicators. In order to fully exploit the properties of these bright stars, we must first learn how to measure their luminosities. Based primarily on classical Cepheids and supergiants in clusters and OB associations, we have derived 80 empirical relations connecting the line depth ratios of Fe ii/Fe i lines with the absolute magnitudes Mv and the effective temperatures Teff. These relations have been applied to estimate the absolute magnitudes of 98 FG supergiants with an error of ±0.26 mag. The application range of our calibrations is spectral types F2–G8 and luminosity classes I and II (absolute magnitudes Mv, −0.5 to −8 mag). A comparison of our Mv determinations with values from the literature shows good agreement.

We present the results obtained by analyzing 20 spectra of six bright Cepheids taken with the 1.9-m telescope at the South African Astronomical Observatory. The chemical composition and atmospheric parameters have been determined for XX Sgr, AP Sgr, RV Sco, RY Sco, V482 Sco, and V636 Sco.

New and existing photometry for the G0 Ia supergiant HD 18391 is analyzed in order to confirm the nature of the variablity previously detected in the star, which lies off the hot edge of the Cepheid instability strip. Small-amplitude variability at a level of \Delta V = 0.016+-0.002 is indicated, with a period of P=123.04+-0.06 d. A weaker second signal may be present at P=177.84+-0.18 with \Delta V = 0.007+-0.002, likely corresponding to fundamental mode pulsation if the primary signal represents overtone pulsation (123.04/177.84 = 0.69). The star, with a spectroscopic reddening of E(B-V) = 1.02, is associated with heavily-reddened B-type stars in its immediate vicinity that appear to be outlying members of an anonymous young cluster centered ~10 arcmin to the west and 1661+-73 pc distant. The cluster has nuclear and coronal radii of r_n=3.5 arcmin and R_c=14 arcmin, respectively, while the parameters for HD 18391 derived from membership in the cluster with its outlying B stars are consistent with those implied by its Cepheid-like pulsation, provided that it follows the semi-period-luminosity relation expected of such objects. Its inferred luminosity as a cluster member is M_V=-7.76+-0.10, its age (9+-1)x10^6 years, and its evolutionary mass ~19 M_{\sun}. HD 18391 is not a classical Cepheid, yet it follows the Cepheid period-luminosity relation closely, much like another Cepheid impostor, V810 Cen., Comment: Accepted for Publication (Astronomische Nachrichten)

In this fourth of a series of papers presenting the results of a detailed multiphase spectroscopic analysis of classical Cepheids, we report on fundamental parameter variation in a group of so-called s-Cepheids. For each star, we have derived phased values of effective temperature, surface gravity, microturbulent velocity, and elemental abundances. Dependences between these parameters, amplitudes of their variation, and pulsational period are discussed in a framework of such dependences obtained in our previous works for 30 classical Cepheids. Our temperature data reveal that five of the s-Cepheids have mean temperatures that deviate substantially from the remainder of the Cepheid data. The temperature deviations place these s-Cepheids near the edges of the fundamental instability strip. While these deviations cannot differentiate between fundamental and overtone pulsation modes, the deviations are undoubtedly related to the root cause of the small amplitudes found in these stars.

High-dispersion spectra were obtained to derive the radial velocity and chemical composition of the distant Cepheid QQ Per. Its location at l = 141°, b = -6.5° allows it to be either a very distant classical Cepheid at 31 kpc from the Galactic center or a type II Cepheid at roughly half that distance. Five spectra at various phases were analyzed for abundances and an additional four spectra were useful for radial velocity. Effective temperatures ranging from 5100 to 5700 K were derived from the five spectra by requiring that there be no dependence of the iron abundance as derived from lines arising from a range of excitation potentials. The metallicity from the mean of five spectra is [Fe/H] = -0.6 ± 0.1. While this allows membership in either the thick disk or the distant thin disk, the presence of H emission at almost all phases indicates that QQ Per is a type II Cepheid of the thick disk. Relative to iron we find a small excess of oxygen, as often seen in metal-poor stars, and a surprising excess of C and N, as derived from high excitation lines. We show that the excess remains so long as no temperature error remains greater than about 200 K. Small deficiencies of the s-process elements appear to be present in common with many metal-poor stars.

We conducted an analysis of the distribution of elements from lithium to europium in 200 dwarfs in the solar neighbourhood ~20 pc with temperatures in the range 4800-6200 K and metallicities [Fe/H] higher than -0.5 dex. Determinations of atmospheric parameters and the chemical composition of the dwarfs were taken from our previous studies. We found that the lithium abundances in the planet-hosting solar-analog stars of our sample were lower than those in the stars without planetary systems. Our results reveal no significant differences exceeding the determination errors for the abundances of investigated elements, except for aluminium and barium, which are more and less abundant in the planet-hosting stars, respectively. We did not find confident dependences of the lithium, aluminium and barium abundances on the ages of our target stars (which is probable because of the small number of stars). Furthermore, we found no correlation between the abundance differences in [El/Fe] and the condensation temperature (Tcond) for stars in the 16 Cyg binary system, unlike the case for 51 Peg (HD 217014), for which a slight excess of volatile elements and a deficit of refractories were obtained relative to those of solar twins. We found that one of the components of 16 Cyg exhibits a slightly higher average abundance than its counterpart ( = 0.08+/-0.02 dex); however, no significant abundance trend versus Tcond was observed. Owing to the relatively large errors, we cannot provide further constraints for this system., Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, 10 tables, corrected version, published on MNRAS in August 2016

Eight cool giants in the unusual globular cluster NGC 6388 have been investigated in order to derive their elemental abundances. Effective temperatures from 3500 to 3850 K were derived using the method of line-depth ratios. Surface gravities were derived in two ways. Spectroscopic gravities, derived by the requirement that the abundance of iron be the same from Fe I and Fe II lines, were rather low, ranging from -0.3 to 0.0. Photometric gravities, derived from the assumed stellar mass of 0.7 M⊙ and the luminosity and Teff of the stars, fell between +0.25 and +0.70. Mean [Fe/H] values were -0.8 for spectroscopic gravities and -0.6 for photometric gravities. A test using spectra of the same resolution of the two coolest red giants in the globular cluster M4 obtained at the Apache Point Observatory were analyzed for comparison with the definitive analysis of Ivans et al. (1999). The very cool metal-poor red giant HD 232078 was also analyzed for comparison with the analysis of Gonzalez & Wallerstein (1998). Both comparisons showed that our methods yield the same abundance scale as previous works. We have compared the composition of stars in NGC 6388 with those of K giants with similar [Fe/H] in 47 Tuc and the Galactic bulge. The observed value of [O/Fe] is near zero, which is less than in 47 Tuc and bulge stars of similar metallicity. The α-elements behave similarly to oxygen and show only small excesses at about the same level as do the α-elements in the globular clusters associated with the Sgr system. It is unclear whether these differences are responsible for the unusual color-magnitude diagram of NGC 6388.

International audience; We derived elemental abundances in 27 Cepheids, the great majority situated within a zone of Galactocentric distances ranging from 5 to 7 kpc. One star of our sample, SU Sct, has a Galactocentric distance of about 3 kpc, and thus falls in a poorly investigated region of the inner thin disc. Our new results, combined with data on abundances in the very central part of our Galaxy taken from the literature, show that iron, magnesium, silicon, sulphur, calcium and titanium local thermodynamic equilibrium abundance radial distributions, as well as non-local thermodynamic equilibrium distribution of oxygen reveal a plateau-like structure or even positive abundance gradient in the region extending from the Galactic Centre to about 5 kpc.

This paper reports on the spectroscopic investigation of 54 Cepheids, deriving parameters and abundances. These Cepheids extend previous samples by about 35% in number and increase the amount of the Galactic disk coverage, especially in the direction of l ≈ 120°. We find that there exists in the Galactic disk at that longitude and at a solar distance of about 3-4 kpc a region that has enhanced abundances, Fe/H] ≈ +0.2, with respect to the local region. A simple linear fit to all Cepheid data now extant yields a gradient d[Fe/H]/dRG = -0.068 ± 0.003 dex kpc-1. After consideration of the spatial abundance inhomogeneities in the sample, we conclude that the best current estimate of the overall gradient is d[Fe/H]/dRG = -0.06 dex kpc-1.

We used red clump stars to measure the surface mass density of the Galactic disk in the solar neighbourhood. High resolution spectra of red clump stars towards the NGP have been obtained with the ELODIE spectrograph at OHP for Tycho-2 selected stars, and nearby Hipparcos counterparts were also observed. We determined their distances, velocities, and metallicities to measure the gravitational force law perpendicular to the Galactic plane. As in most previous studies, we applied one-parameter models of the vertical gravitational potential. We obtained a disk surface mass density within 1.1kpc of the Galactic plane, Sigma_{1.1kpc}=64+/-5 Msun_pc^{-2}, with an excellent formal accuracy, however we found that such one-parameter models can underestimate the real uncertainties. Applying two-parameter models, we derived more realistic estimates of the total surface mass density within 800pc from the Galactic plane, Sigma_{0.8kpc}=57-66 Msun pc^{-2}, and within 1.1kpc, Sigma{1.1kpc}=57-79 Msun pc^{-2}. This can be compared to literature estimates of \sim40 Msun pc^{-2} in stars and to 13 Msun pc^{-2} in the less accurately measured ISM contribution. We conclude that there is no evidence of large amounts of dark matter in the disk and, furthermore, that the dark matter halo is round or not vey much flattened. A by-product of this study is the determination of the half period of oscillation by the Sun through the Galactic plane, 42+/-2Myr, which cannot be related to the possible period of large terrestrial impact craters \sim 33-37Myr., accepted

We have added data for 16 distant Cepheids observed with the echelle spectrograph of the Apache Point 3.5 m telescope to improve the correlations of abundance parameters with pulsation period and distance from the Galactic center (RG). While we see no important trends with pulsation period, some important ratios are closely related to the evolution of stars through the instability strip. The most interesting is the N/C ratio, which is predicted to be enhanced by a factor of 4 when an evolving supergiant cools to Teff = 4000 K and the outer convection zone reaches the depth at which CN processing has converted C to N. We find a Gaussian distribution around a value of [N/C] = 0.6, just as predicted. The ratio of about 30:1 mixed to unmixed stars can be taken as the ratio of evolutionary time spent on the blue loop to the time spent on the first crossing through the instability strip. According to stellar models, the main mixing event takes place when Teff drops below 4000 K, which is outside the red edge of the instability strip; i.e., after stars have crossed the instability strip for the first time. We have confirmed previously known correlations of [Fe/H] with RG. We find that [Fe/H] shows a gradient of –0.06 Kpc–1. The only other significant gradient is that of [Eu/Fe], which increases with RG, thereby showing an increasing ratio of SN II/SN Ia in the outer Galaxy.

We report on the discovery of two lithium Cepheids in the Galaxy, based on observations made with the echelle spectrograph of the Apache Point Observatory. We have used high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectra to determine abundances of chemical elements in 16 classical Cepheids. Only two of our program stars show a lithium line, RX Aur and YZ Aur (RX Aur has been also classified by us as a new nonradial pulsator). For the others, including the stars with [N/C] < 0.2, Li is depleted up to log N(Li) < 1.0. Hence, it appears that mixing depletes Li before stars enter the instability strip. According to stellar models, the main mixing event takes place when Teff drops below 4000 K, which is outside the red edge of the instability strip; i.e., after stars have crossed the instability strip for the first time.

We present the results of a detailed multiphase spectroscopic analysis of six classical Cepheids with pulsation periods between 3 and 6 days. For each star we have derived phased values of effective temperature, surface gravity, microturbulent velocity, and elemental abundances. We show that the elemental abundance results for these Cepheids are consistent for all pulsational phases.

We present chemical abundances in the photosphere of δ Scuti (δ Sct) – a prototype of the class of pulsating variables – determined from the analysis of a spectrum obtained by using the 2-m telescope at the Peak Terskol Observatory and a high-resolution spectrometer with R= 52 000, a signal-to-noise ratio 250 and from International Ultraviolet Explorer spectra. The abundance pattern of δ Sct consists of 49 chemical elements. The abundances of 19 elements have not been investigated previously. The abundances of Pr and Nd obtained from the lines of the second and third spectra are equal. The abundances of heavy elements indicate the overabundances with respect to the solar system values up to 1 dex. The abundance pattern of δ Sct is similar to the abundance patterns of Am–Fm or δ Del type stars. A splitting of the cores of all clean lines is observed for the spectra of δ Sct and HD 57749. This can signify evidence of non-radial pulsations in these stars.

High-resolution CCD spectra have been obtained for the first time for the W Virginis star V1 (K 307) in the globular cluster M12 and its closest neighbor K 307b (m pg=14m; the angular distance from the W Vir star is δ

The non-LTE sodium abundances of 100 stars with metallicities −3 3.8) with metallicities −2

As a continuation of our previous work on the abundance gradient in the outer part of the galactic disc, this paper presents results on the metallicicty distribution over galactocentric distances up to 15 kpc. The outer disc is clearly separated from the middle part by the existence of a step in the metallicity distribution at about 10 kpc. Taking the region of galactocentric distances from 10 kpc to 15 kpc, one can derive an iron gradient $-0.03 \pm 0.01$ dex kpc -1 (25 stars). The existence of a discontinuity can be caused by the effective suppression of mixing processes near the corotation circle where the radial component of the gas velocity should be very small.

Based on spectra obtained at the Anglo-Australian Observatory, we present a discussion of the metallicity of the galactic disc derived using Cepheids at galactocentric distances 4-6 kpc. Our new results together with previous gradient determination (Paper I) show that the overall abundance distribution within the galactocentric distances 4-11 kpc cannot by represented by a single gradient value. The distribution is more likely bimodal: it is flatter in the solar neighbourhood with a small gradient, and steepens towards the galactic center. The steepening begins at a distance of about 6.6 kpc., Comment: 8 pages, 6 postscript figures, LaTeX, uses Astronomy and Astrophysics macro aa.cls, graphicx package, to be published in Astronomy and Astrophysics (2002) also available at http://www.iagusp.usp.br/~maciel/index.html

International audience; The absolute parameters and chemical composition of the BY Dra-type spectroscopic binary OU Gem (HD 45088) were determined on the basis of 10 high-resolution spectra. A new orbital solution of the binary system was determined, the binary ephemerides were specified, and the main physical and atmospheric parameters of the binary components were obtained. The chemical composition of both components was estimated for the first time for the stars of such type.