Galactic chemical evolution and chemical tagging with open clusters

Abstract

The article presents the consolidated results drawn from the chemical composition studies of Reddy et al. (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016) and Reddy & Lambert (2019), who through the high-dispersion echelle spectra (R=60000) of red giant members in a large sample of Galactic open clusters (OCs), derived stellar parameters and chemical abundances for 24 elements by either line equivalent widths or synthetic spectrum analyses. The focus of this article is on the issues with radial-metallicity distribution and the potential chemical tags offered by OCs. Results of these studies confirm the lack of an age–metallicity relation for OCs but argue that such a lack of trend for OCs arise from the limited coverage in metallicity compared to that of field stars which span a wide range in metallicity and age. Results demonstrate that the sample of clusters constituting a steep radial metallicity gradient of slope −0.052 ± 0.011 dex kpc−1 at Rgc< 12 kpc are younger than 1.5 Gyr and located close to the Galactic midplane (|z|<0.5 kpc). Whereas the clusters describing a shallow slope of −0.015 ± 0.007 dex kpc−1 at Rgc> 12 kpc are relatively old with a striking spread in age and height above the midplane (0.5<|z|<2.5 kpc). Results of these studies reveal that OCs and field stars yield consistent radial metallicity gradients if the comparison is limited to samples drawn from the similar vertical heights. The computation of Galactic orbits reveals that the outer disk OCs were actually born inward of 12 kpc but the orbital eccentricity has taken them to present locations very far from their birthplaces. Published results for OCs show that the abundances of the heavy elements La, Ce, Nd and Sm but not so obviously Y and Eu vary from one cluster to another across a sample all having about the solar metallicity. For La, Ce, Nd and Sm the amplitudes of the variations at solar metallicity scale approximately with the main s-process contribution to solar system material. Consideration of published abundances of field stars suggest that such a spread in heavy element abundances is present for the thin and thick disk stars of different metallicity. This result provides an opportunity to chemically tag stars by their heavy elements and to reconstruct dissolved open clusters from the field star population.