Subaru/HDS abundances in three giant stars in the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal galaxy

Abstract

With the HDS (High Dispersion Spectrograph) on the Subaru Telescope, we obtained high-resolution optical region spectra of three red giant stars (COS 4, COS 82, and COS 347) in the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The chemical abundances in these stars were analyzed for 26 elements, including α-, iron-peak, and neutron-capture elements. All three stars show low abundances of α-elements (Mg, Si, and Ca), and two stars (COS 82 and COS 347) show high abundances of Mn compared to Galactic halo stars of similar metallicity. One star (COS 4) has been confirmed to be very metal deficient ([Fe/H] = -2.7) and found to show anomalously low abundances of Mn, Cu, and Ba. In another star, COS 82 ([Fe/H] = -1.5), we have found a large excess of heavy neutron-capture elements with a general abundance pattern similar to the scaled solar system r-process abundance curve. These observational results are rather puzzling: low abundances of α-elements and high abundance of Mn seem to suggest a significant contribution of SNe la at low metallicity, while there is no hint of an s-process (i.e., AGB stars) contribution, even at [Fe/H] = -1.5, suggesting a peculiar nucleosynthetic history of the UMi dSph galaxy.