High-resolution elemental abundance analysis of the open cluster IC 4756

Abstract

We present detailed elemental abundances of 12 subgiants in the open cluster IC 4756 including Na, Al, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Ni, Fe, Zn and Ba. We measure the cluster to have [Fe/H] = -0.01 ± 0.10. Most of the measured star-to-star [X/H] abundance variation is below σ < 0.03, as expected from a coeval stellar population preserving natal abundance patterns, supporting the use of elemental abundances as a probe to reconstruct dispersed clusters. We find discrepancies between Cri and Crii abundances as well as between Tii and Tiii abundances, where the ionized abundances are larger by about 0.2dex. This follows other such studies which demonstrate the effects of overionization in cool stars. IC 4756 are supersolar in Mg, Si, Na and Al, but are solar in the other elements. The fact that IC 4756 is supersolar in some α-elements (Mg, Si) but solar in the others (Ca, Ti) suggests that the production of α-elements is not simply one dimensional and could be exploited for chemical tagging. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. © 2012 RAS.