The Chemical Compositions of Variable Field Horizontal-Branch Stars: RR Lyrae Stars

Abstract

We present a detailed abundance study of 11 RR Lyrae ab-type variables: AS Vir, BS Aps, CD Vel, DT Hya, RV Oct, TY Gru, UV Oct, V1645 Sgr, WY Ant, XZ Aps, and Z Mic. High-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio echelle spectra of these variables were obtained with the 2.5 m du Pont telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory. We obtained more than 2300 spectra, roughly 200 spectra per star, distributed more or less uniformly throughout the pulsational cycles. A new method has been developed to obtain the initial effective temperatures of our sample stars at a specific pulsational phase. We find that the abundance ratios are generally consistent with those of similar metallicity field stars in different evolutionary states and throughout the pulsational cycles for RR Lyrae stars. TY Gru remains the only n-capture enriched star among the RRab in our sample. A new relation is found between microturbulence and effective temperature among stars of the horizontal-branch population. In addition, the variation of microturbulence as a function of phase is empirically shown to be similar to the theoretical variation. Finally, we conclude that the derived T-eff and log g values of our sample stars follow the general trend of a single mass evolutionary track.