![Abundance trends of [X/Fe] versus [Fe/H]. The data points have been colour-coded by the estimated ages of the stars. The red and blue lines mark the smoothed running mean for stars that have ages greater than 9.5 Gyr, and less than 9.5 Gyr, respectively. -- astro-ph.GA](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Exploring-the-Milky.png?fit=1200%2C669&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.GA] We aim to determine abundances of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, potassium, and copper for 714 nearby F and G dwarf and subgiant stars, and to re-derive oxygen abundances using updated corrections for departures from the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium. These elements extend the chemical inventory of our previous studies and provide new constraints on the relative enrichment histories of the Galactic thin and thick disks.
The alpha-element behaviour of oxygen is confirmed, with old stars defining an enhanced sequence relative to young stars. Sulphur closely follows oxygen, while potassium shows broadly alpha-like behaviour in [K/Fe] but residual trends relative to oxygen. Carbon and nitrogen show only modest separation in [X/Fe], but much clearer population differences in [X/O]. Copper displays a strong metallicity dependence and clear separation between old and young populations when compared to oxygen. We also find that [O/Mg] is not constant, demonstrating that oxygen and magnesium provide complementary rather than interchangeable reference scales.
Quantitative comparisons of all elements analysed in our studies show that carbon, oxygen, sulphur, and potassium rank among the most age-sensitive abundance ratios in the sample and provide strong discrimination between old and young disk populations. The new abundance measurements substantially expand the diagnostic power of this local stellar sample.
The results show that abundance ratios relative to oxygen, together with precise stellar ages, reveal population differences that are partly hidden in traditional [X/Fe] trends. The expanded abundance inventory provides a homogeneous reference dataset for studies of Galactic chemical evolution, Galactic archaeology, and large spectroscopic surveys.
Thomas Bensby
Comments: Submitted to A&A
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:2607.01013 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2607.01013v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.01013
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Submission history
From: Thomas Bensby
[v1] Wed, 1 Jul 2026 14:48:34 UTC (2,578 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.01013
Astrobiology, exoplanet, Astrochemistry, interstellar,
