Sulphur and zinc abundances in galactic stars and damped Lyα systems

Abstract

High resolution spectra of 34 halo population dwarf and subgiant stars have been obtained with VLT/UVES and used to derive sulphur abundances from the λλ8694.0, 8694.6 and λλ0212.9, 9237.5 S I lines. In addition, iron abundances have been determined from 19 Fe II lines and zinc abundances from the λλ4722.2, 4810.5 lines. The abundances are based on a classical 1D, LTE model atmosphere analysis, but effects of 3D hydrodynamical modelling on the [S/Fe], [Zn/Fe] and [S/Zn] ratios are shown to be small. We find that most halo stars with metallicities in the range -3.2 -1, [S/Fe] decreases with increasing [Fe/H]. Hence, sulphur behaves like other typical α-capture elements, Mg, Si and Ca. Zinc, on the other hand, traces iron over three orders of magnitude in [Fe/H], although there is some evidence for a small systematic Zn overabundance ([Zn/Fe] ≃ +0.1) among metal-poor disk stars and for halo stars with [Fe/H] < -2.0. Recent measurements of S and Zn in ten damped Lyα systems (DLAs) with redshifts between 1.9 and 3.4 and zinc abundances in the range -2.1