Revisiting RV Tauri stars: first ionization potential (FIP) effect

Abstract

We have derived elemental abundances of eight RV Tauri-type post-asymptotic giant branch stars: AR Sgr, CE Vir, DY Aql, HP Lyr, SS Gem, SZ Mon, TT Oph, and UZ Oph. The abundance analysis of these luminous stars is based on the high-resolution (R ≈ 55 000) optical echelle spectra obtained with the 2.1 m Struve reflector telescope and the CCD-equipped Sandiford Cassegrain echelle spectrograph at the McDonald Observatory. Standard 1D local thermodynamic equilibrium analysis provides a fresh determination of the atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances for 17 species including C, Na, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Y, and Nd. Then, the computed up-to-date abundances are used to investigate FIP in the program stars, as seen in the Sun and sun-like stars. Also, we scrutinize their behavior for dust–gas separation as an alternative mechanism to the FIP. For the first time, we provide atomic line lists with up-to-date atomic data employed in the analysis for AR Sgr, HP Lyr, SZ Mon, TT Oph, and UZ Oph.