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Astron. Astrophys. 364, L42-L46 (2000)
Letter to the Editor
The beryllium abundance in the very metal-poor halo star G 64-12 from VLT/UVES observations *
F. Primas ** 1,
M. Asplund 2,
P.E. Nissen 3 and
V. Hill 1
1 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 2, 85748 Garching bei München (fprimas@eso.org, vhill@eso.org)
2 Uppsala Astronomical Observatory, Box 515, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden (martin@astro.uu.se)
3 Aarhus University, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Denmark (pen@ifa.au.dk)
Received 16 August 2000 / Accepted 28 August 2000
Abstract
We report on a new spectroscopic analysis of the very metal
deficient star G 64-12 ([Fe/H]=-3.3), aimed at determining, for the
first time, its beryllium content. The spectra were observed during
the Science Verification of UVES, the ESO VLT Ultraviolet and Visible
Echelle Spectrograph. The high resolution
(![[FORMULA]](img1.gif)
48 000) and high S/N
(130 per pixel) achieved at the
wavelengths of the BeII resonance doublet allowed an
accurate determination of its abundance: log N(Be/H) = -13.10
![[FORMULA]](img2.gif)
0.15 dex. The Be abundance is
significantly higher than expected from previous measurements of Be in
stars of similar metallicity (3D and NLTE corrections acting to make a
slightly higher value than an LTE analysis). When compared to iron,
the high [Be/Fe] ratio thus found may suggest a flattening in the
beryllium evolutionary trend at the lowest metallicity end or the
presence of dispersion at early epochs of galactic evolution.
Key words: Stars: Population II, abundances,
atmospheres 
- Galaxy: halo
- Instrumentation: spectrographs
* Based on observations taken during the Science Verification of UVES at the VLT/Kueyen telescope, European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile
** Visiting Researcher (CNRS) at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique - Observatoire de Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France
Send offprint requests to: F. Primas
Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Observations and data reduction
- 3. Stellar parameters
- 4. Abundance analysis highlights
- 5. The Beryllium abundance and its uncertainty
- 6. The [Be/Fe] ratio
- 7. Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- References
© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000
Online publication: December 15, 2000
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