Non-LTE analysis of K I in late-type stars Author Reggiani, Henrique, Amarsi, Anish M, Lind, Karin, Barklem, Paul S, Zatsarinny, Oleg, Bartschat, Klaus, Fursa, Dmitry, Bray, Igor, Spina, Lorenzo, Melendez, Jorge Published 2019 Journal Title Astronomy & Astrophysics Version Version of Record (VoR) DOI https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201935156 Copyright Statement © 2019 EDP Sciences. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. The original publication is available at www.europhysicsnews.org/ Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/394550 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au A&A 627, A177 (2019) Astronomy https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201935156 & © ESO 2019 Astrophysics Non-LTE analysis of K I in late-type stars? Henrique Reggiani1,2, Anish M. Amarsi2, Karin Lind2,3, Paul S. Barklem4, Oleg Zatsarinny5, Klaus Bartschat5, Dmitry V. Fursa6, Igor Bray6, Lorenzo Spina7, and Jorge Meléndez1 1 Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, IAG, Departamento de Astronomia, Rua do Matão 1226, Cidade Universitária, 05508-900 SP, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] 2 Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Konigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany 3 Observational Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden 4 Theoretical Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden 5 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa 50311, USA 6 Curtin Institute for Computation and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Kent Street, Bentley, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia 7 Monash Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia Received 29 January 2019 / Accepted 7 June 2019 ABSTRACT Context. Older models of Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) predict [K/Fe] ratios as much as 1 dex lower than those inferred from stellar observations. Abundances of potassium are mainly based on analyses of the 7698 Å resonance line, and the discrepancy between GCE models and observations is in part caused by the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) in spectroscopic analyses. Aims. We study the statistical equilibrium of K I, focusing on the non-LTE effects on the 7698 Å line. We aim to determine how non-LTE abundances of potassium can improve the analysis of its chemical evolution, and help to constrain the yields of GCE models. Methods. We construct a new model K I atom that employs the most up-to-date atomic data. In particular, we calculate and present inelastic e+K collisional excitation cross-sections from the convergent close-coupling (CCC) and the B-Spline R-matrix (BSR) meth- ods, and H+K collisions from the two-electron model (LCAO). We constructed a fine, extended grid of non-LTE abundance corrections based on 1D MARCS models that span 4000 < Teff =K < 8000, 0:50 < log g < 5:00, −5:00 < [Fe=H] < +0:50, and applied the correc- tions to potassium abundances extracted from the literature. Results. In concordance with previous studies, we find severe non-LTE effects in the 7698 Å line. The line is stronger in non-LTE and the abundance corrections can reach approximately −0:7 dex for solar-metallicity stars such as Procyon. We determine potassium abundances in six benchmark stars, and obtain consistent results from different optical lines. We explore the effects of atmospheric inhomogeneity by computing for the first time a full 3D non-LTE stellar spectrum of K I lines for a test star. We find that 3D modeling is necessary to predict a correct shape of the resonance 7698 Å line, but the line strength is similar to that found in 1D non-LTE. Conclusions. Our non-LTE abundance corrections reduce the scatter and change the cosmic trends of literature potassium abundances. In the regime [Fe/H] . −1:0 the non-LTE abundances show a good agreement with the GCE model with yields from rotating massive stars. The reduced scatter of the non-LTE corrected abundances of a sample of solar twins shows that line-by-line differential analysis techniques cannot fully compensate for systematic LTE modelling errors; the scatter introduced by such errors introduces a spurious dispersion to K evolution. Key words. stars: abundances – stars: late-type – line: formation – Galaxy: evolution – Galaxy: abundances 1. Introduction with 93% occurrence in solar-system meteorites (Lodders & Palme 2009). Because of this, and the negligible isotopic shifts Potassium is an alkali metal with an atomic structure very similar of atomic K lines (Clayton 2007), to our knowledge potassium to that of sodium (so similar that they were mistakenly believed isotopic ratios have not yet been measured in stars. to be the same element until after the eighteenth century). How- Assuming that there are no additional nucleosynthetic pro- ever, K is typically an order-of-magnitude less abundant than duction sites of K, there is a clear shortage in the supernova Na and its spectral fingerprint in late-type stars is accordingly yields, as evidenced by the existence of a large discrepancy weaker and much less studied. Potassium has three stable iso- between models of chemical evolution and observed K abun- topes (39K, 40K and 41K); all produced via hydrostatic oxygen dances obtained via stellar spectroscopy (Zhao et al. 2016; shell burning and explosive oxygen burning in massive stars, Sneden et al. 2016). To resolve this discrepancy, the supernova with a relative proportion that depends on the stellar mass yields for K would need to be empirically increased by as much (Woosley & Weaver 1995). The lightest isotope is dominant as twice what current theory would suggest (e.g., Takeda et al. 2002; Romano et al. 2010). Kobayashi et al. (2011) speculate that ? Data are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to the underproduction of K in the models is at least partially due cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc. to the lack of a neutrino process. On the other hand, yields of u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/627/A177 rotating massive stars improve the agreement between models Article published by EDP Sciences A177, page 1 of 17 A&A 627, A177 (2019) and observations, especially in the metal-poor ([Fe/H] ≤ − 2:0) With the goal of improving potassium abundance determi- regime, where the scatter of the observed abundances starts to nations, here we study the non-LTE effects in potassium. To increase and the model predictions match at least the lower that end, we construct a new model K I atom that employs more envelope (Prantzos et al. 2018). accurate atomic data than before. In particular, we calculate The discrepancy between models of chemical evolution and inelastic e+K collisional excitation cross-sections from the CCC observed potassium abundances may also in part be caused by and BSR methods and we also employ improved photoionization systematic errors in modeling the main potassium abundance cross-sections and inelastic H+K collisions from the literature. diagnostic, the resonance K I 7664 and 7698 Å doublet. In prac- In Sect. 2 we present and discuss the calculations of the inelas- tice, heavy blends with telluric O2 make it difficult to correctly tic e+K collisional excitation cross-sections from the CCC and assess the potassium abundances using the 7664 Å line, mean- BSR methods, and in Sect. 3 we present the atomic model. ing that most of the measurements of potassium come from In Sect. 4 we discuss the departures from LTE, and compare the 7698 Å line. Although there are two other observable K I results among different collisional and photoionization recipes. lines in the optical spectra (5801 and 6939 Å), these are usually In Sect. 5 we show the line fits of our non-LTE model against the solar spectrum and the abundance analysis of benchmark stars weak and can only be measured in cool (Teff . 6000 K) high- metallicity ([Fe/H] ∼ +0:0) stars, and are therefore not used as a (HD 103095, HD 84937, HD 140283, HD 192263 and Procyon). diagnostic of the potassium abundance in most studies. In Sect. 7 we describe our non-LTE grid of corrections. In Sect. 8 we discuss the implications for Galactic chemical evolution and In 1975 astronomers already knew that the 7698 Å line was we conclude in Sect. 9. sensitive to departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE; de La Reza & Mueller 1975; Bruls et al. 1992; Takeda et al. 2002; Zhang et al. 2006; Andrievsky et al. 2010; Zhao et al. 2. Inelastic e+K collisional excitation 2016). Previous Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) studies have Calculations of collisional excitation of K by electron impacts demonstrated that LTE potassium abundances can be more than were performed with two state-of-the-art close-coupling meth- 1 dex higher than those predicted by existing models (Kobayashi ods, the CCC and the BSR. These methods and calculations are et al. 2006; Prantzos et al. 2018). Takeda et al. (2002) studied described below, in Sects. 2.1 and 2.2. In Sect. 2.3 the resulting the departures from LTE in the K I 7698:9 Å line across a grid of data are described, and are compared in Sect. 3.3, along with 100 atmospheric models. They found non-LTE corrections span- older calculations. ning from −0:2 to −0:7 dex, with a strong sensitivity to effective temperature, which was also confirmed in later works (Takeda et al. 2009; Andrievsky et al. 2010). Thus, non-LTE modeling 2.1. Convergent close coupling method can significantly decrease the discrepancy between models and The e+K CCC calculations are based on the generalization observations (e.g., Kobayashi et al.