Unravelling UBC 274: A morphological, kinematical, and chemical analysis of a disrupting open cluster

Abstract

Context. Open clusters in the process of disruption help to understand the formation and evolution of the Galactic disk. The wealth and homogeneity of Gaia data have led to the discovery of several open clusters with signs of disruption. Detailed chemical information for these clusters is essential in order to study the timescales and interplay between the star formation process and cluster disruption. Aims. We perform a morphological, kinematic, and chemical analysis of the disrupting cluster UBC 274 (2.5 Gyr, d = 1778 pc), to study its global properties. Methods. We use HDBSCAN to obtain a new membership list up to 50 pc from its centre and up to magnitude G = 19 using Gaia EDR3 data. We use high-resolution and high signal-to-noise spectra to obtain atmospheric parameters of six giants and sub-giants, and individual abundances of 18 chemical species. Results. The cluster has a highly eccentric (0.93) component, tilted ∼10 deg with respect to the plane of the Galaxy, which is morphologically compatible with the results of a test-particle simulation of a disrupting cluster. Our abundance analysis shows that the cluster has a sub-solar metallicity of [Fe/H] = −0.08 ± 0.02. Its chemical pattern is compatible with that of Ruprecht 147, of similar age but located closer to the Sun, with the remarkable exception of neutron-capture elements, which present an overabundance of [n/Fe] ∼ 0.1. Conclusions. The cluster’s elongated morphology is associated with the internal part of its tidal tail, following the expected dynamical process of disruption. We find a significant sign of mass segregation, where the most massive stars appear 1.5 times more concentrated than other stars. The cluster’s overabundance of neutron-capture elements can be related to the metallicity dependence of the neutron-capture yields due to the secondary nature of these elements, predicted by some models. UBC 274 presents a high chemical homogeneity at the level of 0.03 dex in the sampled region of its tidal tails.