dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaDiscovery of the First Five Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars in the LMC
| Authors | Madeline Lucey, Vedant Chandra, Alexander Ji, Andrew Casey, David Nidever, Sean Morrison, Robyn Sanderson, Slater Oden, José Fernández-Trincado, Guilherme Limberg |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | 2601.10514vv1 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10514 |
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Abstract
A substantial fraction of metal-poor stars in the local Milky Way halo exhibit large overabundances of carbon. These stars, dubbed Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) stars, provide crucial constraints on the nature of the early universe including the earliest nucleosynthetic events. Whether these stars exist at similar rates in nearby galaxies is a major open question with implications for the environmental dependence of early chemical evolution. Here, we present the discovery of the first five CEMP stars in the Milky Way's largest dwarf companion, the LMC, using SDSS-V spectra from the BOSS instrument. We measure metallicities ranging from [Fe/H] = -2.1 to -3.2 and evolutionary state corrected carbon enhancements of [C/Fe] = +1.2 to +2.4, placing these stars among the most metal-poor and carbon-rich ever identified in the LMC. This discovery demonstrates that CEMP stars do exist in the LMC despite previous null detections, and establishes the foundation for measuring the CEMP occurrence rate in this system. Such measurements will provide critical tests of whether environmental differences affect the formation channels and frequencies of these ancient, carbon-rich stars.
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"abstract": "A substantial fraction of metal-poor stars in the local Milky Way halo exhibit large overabundances of carbon. These stars, dubbed Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) stars, provide crucial constraints on the nature of the early universe including the earliest nucleosynthetic events. Whether these stars exist at similar rates in nearby galaxies is a major open question with implications for the environmental dependence of early chemical evolution. Here, we present the discovery of the first five CEMP stars in the Milky Way\u0027s largest dwarf companion, the LMC, using SDSS-V spectra from the BOSS instrument. We measure metallicities ranging from [Fe/H] = -2.1 to -3.2 and evolutionary state corrected carbon enhancements of [C/Fe] = +1.2 to +2.4, placing these stars among the most metal-poor and carbon-rich ever identified in the LMC. This discovery demonstrates that CEMP stars do exist in the LMC despite previous null detections, and establishes the foundation for measuring the CEMP occurrence rate in this system. Such measurements will provide critical tests of whether environmental differences affect the formation channels and frequencies of these ancient, carbon-rich stars.",
"arxiv_id": "2601.10514",
"authors": [
"Madeline Lucey",
"Vedant Chandra",
"Alexander Ji",
"Andrew Casey",
"David Nidever",
"Sean Morrison",
"Robyn Sanderson",
"Slater Oden",
"Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez-Trincado",
"Guilherme Limberg"
],
"categories": [
"astro-ph.GA"
],
"license": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"title": "Discovery of the First Five Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars in the LMC",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10514",
"version": "v1"
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