Abundance Anomalies in NGC6752 - Do AGB Stars Have a Role?

Abstract

We are in the process of testing a popular theory that the observed abundance anomalies in the Globular Cluster NGC 6752 are due to 'internal pollution' from intermediate mass asymptotic giant branch stars. To this end we are using a chemical evolution model incorporating custom-made stellar evolution yields calculated using a detailed stellar evolution code. By tracing the chemical evolution of the intracluster gas, which is polluted by two generations of stars, we are able to test the internal pollution scenario in which the Na- and Al-enhanced ejecta from intermediate mass stars is either accreted onto the surfaces of other stars, or goes toward forming new stars. In this paper we focus mainly on the nucleosynthetic yields of the AGB stars and discuss whether these stars are the source of the observed Na-O anticorrelation. Comparing our preliminary results with observational data suggests that the qualitative theory is not supported by this quantitative study. This study has recently been completed and published in [Fenner, Y., Campbell, S.W., Karakas, A.I., Lattanzio, J.C, Gibson, B.K., 2004, MNRAS, 353, 789]. Details of the stellar models will be in a forthcoming paper [Campbell, S. W., et al. 2004, in prep.].