Fluorine Abundance Variations as a Signature of Enhanced Extra Mixing in Red Giants of the.pdf

a r X i v : a s t r o - p h / 0 6 0 4 5 0 3 v 1 2 4 A p r 2 0 0 6 FLUORINE ABUNDANCE VARIATIONS AS A SIGNATURE OF ENHANCED EXTRA MIXING IN RED GIANTS OF THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER M4 Pavel A. Denissenkov1,2, Marc Pinsonneault1, Donald M. Terndrup1 ABSTRACT We show that enhanced extra mixing in low-mass red giants can result in a fluorine abundance that is correlated with abundance variations of other elements participating in H burning, such as C, N, O and Na. This finding is used to explain the fluorine abundance variations recently found in bright red giants of the globular cluster M4. Subject headings: stars: chemically peculiar — stars: evolution — stars: interiors — stars: late-type — globular clusters: general 1. Introduction In many galactic globular clusters, there are star-to-star abundance variations of C, N, O, Na, Mg and Al, while the heavier elements show almost no dispersion (see reviews by Denissenkov 2004b; Gratton et al. 2004, and references therein). The signs of these variations, their pairwise correlations, and the constancy of the sum of C+N+O in some clusters (Pilachowski 1988; Smith et al. 1996; Ivans et al. 1999) indicate that we are most likely seeing the by-products of H burning in the CNO–, NeNa–, and MgAl–cycles. Re- garding their production place and process, the most plausible alternatives proposed so far include the so-called hot-bottom burning of hydrogen at the bottom of convective envelope in intermediate-mass (4 . M/M⊙ . 6) asymptotic giant branch (IM-AGB) stars (D’Antona et al. 1983; Ventura et al. 2001), and the hydrogen shell burning in low-mass (M . 2M⊙) red giant branch (RGB) stars (Sweigart Mengel 1979; Denisenkov Denisenkova 1990; Langer Hoffman 1995). The former case would imply primordial abundance variations 1Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210; dpa@astronomy.ohio-state.edu, pinsono@astronomy.ohio-state.edu, terndrup@astronomy.ohio-state.edu. 2On leave from Sobol