The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters – XIX. A chemical tagging of the multiple stellar populations over the chromosome maps

Abstract

Abstract The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters (GCs) has investigated GCs and their stellar populations. In previous papers of this series we have introduced a pseudo two-colour diagram, or ‘chromosome map’ (ChM) that maximizes the separation between the multiple populations. We have identified two main classes of GCs: Type I, including ∼83 per cent of the objects, and Type II clusters. Both classes host two main groups of stars, referred to in this series as first (1G) and second generation (2G). Type II clusters host more complex ChMs, exhibiting two or more parallel sequences of 1G and 2G stars. We exploit spectroscopic elemental abundances from the literature to assign the chemical composition to the distinct populations as identified on the ChMs of 29 GCs. We find that stars in different regions of the ChM have different compositions: 1G stars share the same light-element content as field stars, while 2G stars are enhanced in N and Na and depleted in O. Stars with enhanced Al, as well as stars with depleted Mg, populate the extreme regions of the ChM. We investigate the intriguing colour spread among 1G stars observed in many Type I GCs, and find no evidence for internal variations in light elements among these stars, whereas either a ∼0.1 dex iron spread or a variation in He among 1G stars remains to be verified. In the attempt of analysing the global properties of the multiple-population phenomenon, we have constructed a universal ChM, which highlights that, though very variegate, the phenomenon has some common pattern among all the analysed GCs. The universal ChM reveals a tight connection with Na abundances, for which we have provided an empirical relation. The additional ChM sequences observed in Type II GCs are enhanced in metallicity and, in some cases, s-process elements. Omega Centauri can be classified as an extreme Type II GC, with a ChM displaying three main extended ‘streams’, each with its own variations in chemical abundances. One of the most noticeable differences is found between the lower and upper streams, with the latter, associated with higher He, being also shifted towards higher Fe and lower Li abundances. We publicly release the ChMs.