The Behavior of Chemical Elements in Stars

Despite more than one century of observational stellar spectroscopy, the resulting data are not available in an easily accessible format. The necessity of such basic information is greater than ever, because new wavelength regions (ultraviolet, infrared) are now accessible and because modern receivers can only analyze short stretches of spectra, so that a careful pre-selection of strategic elements is mandatory.

This book presents a summary of our knowledge of the behavior of all chemical elements identified in stars, based on observations rather than on their interpretations. Whenever possible the behavior is described quantitatively, with the help of equivalent widths in different types of stars, or different ionization stages, for both absorption and emission features. It will be essential to the spectroscopist when confronted with questions like the following:.

What is the behavior of europium in metallic line stars or in S-type stars? Are the neutral lines of this element visible, are they strengthened or weakened with regard to normal dwarfs? A huge amount of data has been gathered by experts in the field and presented in a way that will be invaluable to professional astrophysicists, cosmochemists and their students.