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# The Chemical Inhomogeneity of Faint M13 Stars: C and N Abundances Based in large part on observations obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated jointly by the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

It has been known since the early 1970’s that the otherwise indistinguishable members of any given Galactic globular cluster (GC) exhibit significant star-to-star variations in surface abundances of certain light elements (most notably C and N, as well as O, and often Na, Al, and Mg)111Note we are excluding $`\omega `$ Cen and M22, both of which appear to have experienced some degree of self-enrichment.. However, while the abundance patterns commonly observed point to an origin in proton capture nucleosynthesis (Denisenkov & Denisenkova, 1990; Langer & Hoffman, 1995; Cavallo, Sweigart, & Bell, 1996), identification of the specific reaction site(s) and a full theoretical description of the abundance modifying process(es) remain uncertain. As has been pointed out in numerous reviews (see Smith, 1987; Kraft, 1994; Da Costa, 1998) two possibilities exist:

First, the present day cluster stars may have modified their own surface compositions through some mixing process not included in standard models (i.e., an “in situ” scenario). By far the most promising candidate site in this regard is the region above the H-burning shell after first dredge-up in evolving cluster giants, where conditions for partial CN and possibly ON-cycle reactions exist (see Sweigart & Mengel, 1979, for one of the earliest treatments). Subsequent circulation of this material into the stellar envelope via meridional currents or turbulent diffusion (for example Denissenkov & VandenBerg, 2003) will result in decreasing C abundances and increasing N with evolutionary state as has been observed along the red giant branches (RGB) of several metal-poor clusters (see Carbon et al., 1982; Trefzger et al., 1983; Briley et al., 1990, for classic examples). Moreover, the operation of such a mechanism can at least qualitatively explain the O and Mg versus Na and Al anticorrelations found among the most luminous red giants in several clusters (e.g. Kraft et al., 1998, and references therein).

Common to all models of this process is the prohibition of “extra mixing” by the molecular weight gradient left behind by the inward excursion of the convective envelope during first dredge-up. Only after the molecular weight discontinuity has been destroyed by the outward moving H-burning shell, an event marked by the RGB luminosity function (LF) bump, is mixing expected to take place (Sweigart & Mengel, 1979; Charbonnel, Brown, & Wallerstein, 1998, and others). This theoretical prediction appears to be borne out by observations of decreased Li abundances following the LF bump in NGC 6752 (Grundahl et al., 2002) and similar drops in 12C$`/^{13}`$C seen by Shetrone (2003) in NGC 6528 and M4.

However, this cannot be the entire picture. As early as 1978, it was noted by Hesser (1978) that the subgiant branch (SGB) and likely the main-sequence (MS) stars of 47 Tuc also possessed star-to-star differences in CH and CN band strengths. This has been most recently followed in 47 Tuc to $`2.5`$ mag below the MS turn-off (MSTO) by Harbeck et al. (2003). An analysis of their observed CN and CH band strengths yields factors of 10 variations in N anticorrelated with factors of 3 differences in C (Briley et al., 2004), matching those found among the more evolved members. Such CN and CH (N and C) variations have also been shown to exist among the MS, MSTO, or SGB stars of NGC 6752, M71, and M5 (Suntzeff & Smith, 1991; Cohen, 1999a; Cohen, Briley & Stetson, 2002) Moreover, star-to-star variations in Na, Al, O, and Mg, similar to those found among the luminous cluster stars, have been identified among the SGB and MSTO stars of 47 Tuc (Briley et al., 1996), NGC 6752 (Gratton et al., 2001), M71 (Ramírez & Cohen, 2002), and M5 (Ramírez & Cohen, 2003). Although the various correlations and anticorrelations among these elements suggest the presence of material exposed to proton-capture reactions, such stars lie well below the LF bump and, particularly in the case of the MS stars, no mechanism is known for circulating significant quantities of CN(O) nucleosynthesized material to their surfaces.

Thus the second possible origin of the GC abundance variations - they have been set in place before RGB ascent and are due to the operation of some mechanism early in the cluster history (sometimes referred to as a “primordial” scenario). A number of possibilities exist as are discussed extensively by Cannon et al. (1998), including: that the proto-cluster gas was inhomogeneous in these elements (a true primordial origin), that there was an extended period of star formation of sufficient duration to allow some low-mass stars to form with material ejected from more massive already-evolved cluster asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, or that the present day cluster stars have accreted AGB ejecta onto their surfaces after their formation. The appeal of AGB stars as sites of the proton capture nucelosynthesis lies in their ability to modify the cluster gas in light elements (including C, N, O, Al, Na, and Mg - see Ventura et al., 2001) while not altering the abundances of heavy elements.

As the reader has likely noted, observational evidence exists for both mixing and early contamination scenarios, which has led many investigators to conclude that the compositions of the cluster stars we observe today are not the result of one or the other scenario exclusively, but rather both. Unfortunately, this leads to difficulties in disentangling the contributions of each process among the more luminous cluster stars - a problem that can only be reconciled by exploring the compositions of a cluster’s stars to the MSTO and below. Clearly, abundance trends found among a cluster’s MS stars reflect the original makeup of the bright giants, while deviations from this “baseline” composition are likely the result of mixing. This was recently demonstrated in the case of M13 by Briley et al. (2002) (hereafter BCS02) - that a large spread in C abundances exists among the SGB stars of M13, which presumably reflects star-to-star variations in C abundances set early in the cluster history. However, the SGB C abundances also appear larger than those found by other investigators among the more luminous M13 stars, implying the operation of a mixing mechanism on the RGB which has reduced surface C abundances.

In the present paper, we return to M13 and extend our sample more than two magnitudes fainter to include MS stars. In addition, we have also obtained spectra of M13 bright giants observed in earlier studies to verify our abundance scale. Our results confirm those of BCS02 - that a primordial spread in the distribution of light elements exists in M13 which has further been modified during RGB ascent. Measurements of the 3360Å NH bands also were obtained for a handful of the more luminous stars in our sample. N abundances calculated from these bands suggest a C versus N anticorrelation at the level of the MSTO.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS

### 2.1 THE FAINT STAR SAMPLE

The initial sample of stars in M13 was aimed to produce subgiants at the base of the RGB. It consisted of those stars from the photometric database (described by Stetson, Hesser, & Smecker-Hane, 1998; Stetson, 2000) located more than 150 arcsec from the center of M13 (to avoid crowding) with $`16.9<V<17.35`$ and with $`0.86<(VI)<0.96`$ mag. A slitmask with 0.7 arcsec wide slitlets, narrower than normal to enhance the spectral resolution and minimize contributions from adjacent stars in these crowded fields, was designed using JGC’s software from this sample and used in May 2001 with LRIS (Oke et al., 1995) at Keck. For this slitmask, as for all those used for the M13 stars, the red side of LRIS was set to include the NaD lines and H$`\alpha `$. We used the highest possible dispersion, 0.64 Å/pixel (29 km s-1/pixel) or 1.9 Å/spectral resolution element there, to facilitate radial velocity confirmation of cluster membership. Given that the radial velocity of M13 is –246 km s-1, distinguishing field stars from cluster members is then straightforward.

The blue side of LRIS (McCarthy et al., 1998) was used with the 600 line/mm grism blazed at 5000 Å. The detector for LRIS-B at that time was a 2048x2048 CCD not optimized for UV response. The spectra covered the range from $``$3400 to 5000 Å, thus including the strongest CN band at 3885 Å and the G band of CH at 4300 Å, with a resolution of $``$4 Å (1.0 Å/pixel). Two additional slitmasks were defined from this sample and used in May 2002 during less than ideal weather conditions for 6 exposures of 4800 sec each. The spectra were dithered by moving the stars along the length of the slitlets by 2 arcsec between exposures. These spectra are part of those presented in BCS02.

Because of the crowded fields, in addition to the intended stars some slitlets contained additional stars bright enough to provide suitable spectra, and these were utilized as well. As might be expected from the luminosity function, most of the secondary sample consists of stars at or just below the main-sequence turnoff. Hence subtraction of sequential exposures was not possible, and they were reduced individually using Figaro (Shortridge, 1988) scripts, then the 1D spectra for each object were summed.

Based on the serendipitous main sequence stars found in the 2002 observations (see the plots in BCS02), we decided to try to reach main sequence stars well below the turnoff in M13, sufficiently faint to be cool enough to have detectable CH bands. The criteria used to define the sample from the photometric database were 19.3 $`<`$ I $`<`$ 19.7, V-I within 0.06 mag of the main sequence of M13, taken as 1.26+0.28(I-19.4), and located more than 200 arcsec from the center of M13. A single slitmask with 0.8 arcsec wide slitlets was designed and used at Keck with LRIS June 26, 2003. The blue spectra cover the full range from the atmospheric cutoff to 5000 Å, with 1.0 Å/pixel and a spectral resolution of $``$ 4 Å. Four exposures totalling 4200 sec were obtained. The new very high quantum efficiency detector for LRIS-B consisting of two 2kx4k Marconi CCDs, with 15 $`\mu `$ pixels and a readout noise of 4.0 e-, was completed and installed into LRIS in June 2002, and so was available for these observations. The high UV throughput of LRIS-B with this new sensitive detector for the first time enabled us to reach the NH bands in the brighter of these stars with some precision. The locations of the faint program stars on the M13 color-magnitude diagram (CMD) are shown in Figure 1.

### 2.2 THE BRIGHT STAR SAMPLE

There are published surveys (Suntzeff, 1981; Smith et al., 1996) in which CH indices have been used to determine \[C/Fe\] values for large samples of the highest luminosity giants in M13. However, our Keck/LRIS sample of low luminosity stars in M13 has no overlap with these earlier works. To ensure that the merger of our data for faint stars in M13 with these published datasets for CH band strengths in M13 giants is valid, we need to verify the consistency of the different measurements of the CH indices and resulting abundances. To demonstrate this, we obtained new blue spectra of a small sample of bright giants with published CH band strengths from earlier studies, and remeasured their CH indices with the same procedures used for the lower luminosity M13 stars of our main sample (as described below). These spectra were taken in April and May, 2003 at the Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain during observing runs intended primarily for other projects. The blue channel of the Double Spectrograph (Oke & Gunn, 1982) was used with a 1200 line/mm grating and a Loral 512x2788 15$`\mu `$ pixel CCD, giving 0.55 Å/pixel with a spectral resolution of 1.9 Å for a 1 arcsec slit.

## 3 ANALYSIS

### 3.1 THE FAINT STAR SAMPLE

Our analysis essentially repeats that of BCS02 and is fully described in Briley & Cohen (2001) (hereafter BC01) and the reader is referred to these works for details. To summarize: strengths of the 4350Å CH (G) bands of our program stars were measured via the I(CH) index of Cohen (1999b, a) \- an index which compares the flux removed by the G-band to the adjacent continuum on both sides. The resulting indices, calculated using bandpasses corrected for the radial velocity of M13, are plotted for the sample of faint stars as a function of I magnitude in Figure 2. The decrease in CH band strengths near I $``$ 18 is due to the higher temperatures of the MSTO stars (as pointed out by BC01). However, among the fainter MS stars in the sample (near I $``$ 19.5), the surface temperatures have dropped by roughly 300K and again a large and significant scatter in CH band strengths is apparent. The one sigma error bars plotted for the present sample have been determined entirely from Poisson statistics in the molecular-band and continuum spectral windows.

In a similar manner, the strength of absorption by the 3350Å NH band was measured in spectra of the more luminous members of the Keck MS/MSTO sample using the double sided logarithmic $`s_{NH}`$ index as defined in Briley & Smith (1993). The resulting indices (and one sigma Poisson error bars) are also plotted in Figure 2. This marks the first time NH bands have been observed among such faint stars in a globular cluster. Spectra of two MSTO stars exhibiting differing NH band strengths, and two MS stars with differing CH band strengths are shown in Figure 3.

In order to relate the observed indices to the underlying \[C/Fe\], we employ a series of synthetic spectra based on MARCS (Gustafsson et al., 1975) model atmospheres. Our models are those used in BC01 and BCS02 and based on the 16 Gyr $`[Fe/H]`$ = $``$1.48 O-enhanced isochrone grid of Bergbusch & VandenBerg (2001). The locations of the model points on the M13 I, V$``$I CMD are shown in Figure 1 assuming $`(mM)_V`$ = 14.43 and a reddening of E(B$``$V) = 0.02 as in BC01 and BCS02.

From each model and a given set of C/N/O abundances, synthetic spectra were computed using the SSG program (Bell, Paltoglou, & Tripicco, 1994, and references therein) and the line list of Tripicco & Bell (1995) at a step size of 0.02Å (see BC01 for further details) assuming the average heavy element compositions of Kraft et al. (1993, 1997). The result was then convolved with a Gaussian kernel to match the resolution of the observed spectra and I(CH) and $`s_{NH}`$ indices were measured. The model indices for I(CH) are illustrated in Figure 2 for four C abundances (as in BCS02): \[C/Fe\] = $``$0.85 and \[C/Fe\] = $``$1.1, which roughly match the observed compositions of M13’s CN-weak and strong bright giants respectively (see Smith et al., 1996), and \[C/Fe\] = 0.0 and \[C/Fe\] = $``$0.5. Also plotted in Figure 2 are $`s_{NH}`$ indices for a variety of \[N/Fe\] values. Note that among these relatively warm MS/MSTO stars, there is little sensitivity in the CH (NH) band strengths to changes in N, O (C, O) abundances (as opposed to the cool giants where molecular equilibrium must be considered, particularly with regard to O). As a check of this, Table 1 shows the sensitivity of I(CH) and $`s_{NH}`$ to such changes in a cool MS model (Teff=5601, log g=4.66, corresponding to an M13 MS star with $`I`$=19.60).

Following BCS02, we have applied the method of Briley et al. (1990) to convert the observed indices to corresponding C and N abundances: the model isoabundance curves were interpolated to the $`M_I`$ of each program star, and the observed index converted into the corresponding abundance based on the synthetic index at that $`M_I`$. Resulting C and N abundances are plotted in Figures 4 and 5. Note that the large error bars which accompany the stars of Figure 4 near I=19 and the stars of low \[C/Fe\] ($`1`$) are due to the overall weakness of the CH bands — small errors in I(CH) therefore result in large changes in \[C/Fe\]. Likewise, a similar situation exists among the MSTO stars with measured NH band strengths.

### 3.2 THE BRIGHT STAR SAMPLE

As with the faint stars, the I(CH) index was measured from the spectra of the six bright M13 giants. For each star this value was compared to synthetic indices generated from model atmospheres whose stellar parameters were taken from the high resolution analyses of Kraft et al. (1993, 1997), and Pilachowski et al. (1996), including their heavy element and \[O/Fe\] abundances. Where available, \[N/Fe\] values from Smith et al. (1996) were also used. For two stars (K188 and III-7), N abundances were not available from the literature, and a value of +1.0 was assumed. For star III-7, an \[O/Fe\] of 0.0 was used. The model parameters and the resulting \[C/Fe\] abundance which matched the observed I(CH) indices are listed in Table 2 along with the C abundances from Smith et al. (1996) and Suntzeff (1981).

For the four bright giants in common with Smith et al. (1996), we find an average offset of 0.03($`\pm `$ 0.14) dex in \[C/Fe\] (present $``$ Smith). We therefore consider our C abundances to be essentially on the same scale, as might be expected considering the similar analysis tools used. The difference between our results and those of Suntzeff (1981) are somewhat larger: 0.25($`\pm `$0.23). However, almost half of this offset is driven by the result for II-76. Excluding this star reduces the average difference to 0.14($`\pm `$0.07). Note that II-76 has both a high \[O/Fe\] and a lower \[N/Fe\] abundance as might be expected from a star with a lesser amount of CN(O)-cycle material in its atmosphere (it also has the second lowest Na abundance of the large sample of Pilachowski et al., 1996). The source of this discrepancy is likely the cooler model used for II-76 by Suntzeff (Teff = 4220K versus the 4350K used here), as well as the lower O abundance (\[O/Fe\] = 0.0) and higher microturbulent velocity (2.5 km s-1). Repeating our analysis with the values used by Suntzeff reduces our resulting \[C/Fe\] by 0.32 dex to $``$0.96. The luminous stars of Suntzeff plotted in Figure 4 have therefore been shifted by 0.14 in \[C/Fe\] to place them on our abundance scale.

Given the use of the same modeling codes, line lists, and CH indices throughout our analysis, we presume the resulting C abundances from both the faint and bright star samples, as well as those of Smith et al. (1996) and Suntzeff (1981) (with the appropriate shift), to be on the same abundance scale. Any systematic differences due to different telescope/spectrograph systems will be minimized by the use of the I(CH) index which uses continuum bands both blueward and redward of the CH feature to remove slope differences due to variations in instrumental response.

## 4 RESULTS

There are several points to be made about the present results, which are given in tabular form in Tables 3 and 4 of Appendix A. First, as can be seen in Figure 2, significant differences in \[C/Fe\] exist among stars at least 1.5 mag fainter than the MSTO in M13. This corresponds to a mass of approximately 0.66 $`M_{}`$ using the isochrone of Figure 1. Among these old MS stars, CN(O)-cycle reactions are entirely confined to the central core (see for example Figures 4 and 5 of Richard et al., 2002) and as has been pointed out by numerous investigators, MS stars such as these are not thought to possess a mechanism that connects their surface with regions of energy generation (namely the core). Indeed, should such mixing take place, the subsequent paths of the stars in the CMD would be radically altered by the infusion of fresh H into the core (e.g. VandenBerg & Smith, 1988). One must conclude the source of the observed differences in \[C/Fe\] is likely not the stars themselves. Moreover, the values of \[C/Fe\] among the MS stars are consistent with those found by BCS02 among the M13 SGB stars (see Figure 4) and imply little change in composition has occurred from the MS to at least the base of the SGB.

Figure 4 also includes the \[C/Fe\] values of Smith et al. (1996) and Suntzeff (1981) (shifted upwards by 0.14 dex). As discussed in BCS02, there appears to be a marked decline in \[C/Fe\] towards higher luminosities among the M13 giants. Clearly an evolutionary change such as this can be best interpreted as the result of a mixing process bringing up C-depleted material from a region in which at least CN-cycle reactions are operating (see BCS02 for a more detailed discussion). Also shown in Figure 4 is the location of the LF bump in M13 (from Paltrinieri, Ferraro, Carretta, & Fusi Pecci, 1998) — the event which marks the destruction of the molecular weight gradient thought to inhibit deep mixing. Unfortunately, the luminosity at which the onset of C depletion begins is uncertain due to the gap in the available data (from 15 $`<`$ V $`<`$ 17). However, since an extrapolation of the trend in giant-branch \[C/Fe\] abundance faintward intersects the magnitude of the LF bump at the average abundance of the fainter stars, it is reasonable to infer that the abundance decline begins near that event; neither a significant decrease nor a significant increase in carbon abundance with a subsequent recovery to the original value hidden within the gap in our data is reasonably to be expected.

The \[N/Fe\] values determined from the NH band strengths of the MSTO stars are plotted in Figure 5. Although the error bars are admittedly larger than one would like owing to the weaknesses of the CH and NH bands among the warmer MSTO stars, a general anticorrelation between \[C/Fe\] and \[N/Fe\] is suggested. Note that these abundances do not suffer from the inherent tendency towards C/N anticorrelations of analyses based on CH and CN band strengths. Of course an overall C/N anticorrelation is known to be present among the evolved M13 stars and the values for the bright RGB stars of Smith et al. (1996) are also shown in Figure 5. Immediately apparent is the shift of the RGB stars towards lower \[C/Fe\], as is expected from Figure 4. If C-poor/N-rich material is indeed being circulated into the stellar envelopes during RGB ascent, the lack of near solar \[N/Fe\] RGB stars is also explained (although the error bars on the two lower \[N/Fe\] MSTO stars severely limit the weight which can be placed on this statement). That higher N abundances do not appear to be found among the RGB stars under these circumstances is perhaps not a surprise if these stars are already leaving the MSTO with large \[N/Fe\] overabundances: an M13 MSTO star with \[C/Fe\] = $``$0.4 and \[N/Fe\] = 1.0 which undergoes a mixing episode reducing \[C/Fe\] to $``$1.2 will experience a rise in \[N/Fe\] of only 0.05 dex — in essence, the N abundances are already so large, the addition of freshly minted N via the CN-cycle results in only a small fractional change in \[N/Fe\]. Thus, while the error bars in Figure 5 are large, we can at least claim it is not inconsistent with the assertion that we are seeing substantial star-to-star variations in C (and N) set early in the cluster history, which are further being modified by mixing during RGB ascent. The possibility of also mixing ON-cycle material to the surface is more difficult to assess because of the large N variations among the MSTO stars. In the example above, an additional reduction in \[O/Fe\] from +0.45 to $`0.35`$ would increase \[N/Fe\] by 0.46 dex — and among the bright giants, even larger O depletions (as much as \[O/Fe\] = $`0.7`$ to $`0.8`$) have been noted. Starting with an even larger N overabundance of +1.4 reduces the change in \[N/Fe\] to +0.25. However, at least from the small sample of Figure 5, it appears that none of the bright RGB stars possess larger N abundances than their MSTO counterparts, which in turn suggests the envelopes of at least the initially N-rich stars may not be cycled through a region of ON-cycle reactions while on the RGB. Clearly knowledge of the O abundances of the M13 MSTO stars would help settle this question.

A similar result was noted in the more metal-poor clusters M92 and M15 by Carbon et al. (1982) and Trefzger et al. (1983) (respectively) — that substantial N overabundances are present from the SGB to AGB that are not necessarily correlated with C abundances. Indeed, an analogous situation can been seen in the present results and those of Cohen et al. (2002) for M5 (see Figures 5 and 6): the “higher” \[C/Fe\] MSTO stars (at $`0.4`$) span almost a dex in \[N/Fe\]. It is clear that if we are to ascribe the same mechanism to the origin of the SGB/MSTO inhomogeneities in these clusters, it must be operating at the MSTO or earlier.

## 5 DISCUSSION

That significant and correlated star-to-star differences in C and N, as well as O, Na, Al, and Mg have been found among the SGB, MSTO, and MS stars of several clusters (see references above), implies the operation of some process external to the present stars, presumably having taken place early in the cluster history. The discussion of Cannon et al. (1998) includes a comprehensive look at various possibilities. It is worth while however, to revisit a few of the more critical constraints on any theory of the origin of the abundance variations.

First, whatever mechanism has altered the light-element compositions of the cluster stars has left the heavy elements essentially untouched, at least to the limits of our ability to determine them — the analysis of M5 by Ramírez & Cohen (2003) is an excellent example. This alone would seem to exclude the possibility of the light-element variations arising from the merger of two distinct proto-cluster clouds (as has been pointed out by numerous authors).

Second, these abundance variations appear to be almost ubiquitous among the population of Galactic globular clusters. To highlight this, we have plotted in Figure 6 the \[C/Fe\] and \[N/Fe\] values for the present sample of M13 MSTO stars, the 47 Tuc MS stars of Briley et al. (2004), the M5 SGB stars of Cohen et al. (2002), and the MSTO stars of M71 from BC01. Note that BC01 did not directly extract C and N abundances from their observed indices — we have converted them here following the procedure outlined in Cohen et al. (2002) and using the indices and models presented in BC01; the values are given in Appendix A, Table 5.

Third, the elements which are observed to vary are associated with proton capture nucleosynthesis under conditions of CN and ON-cycling. The source/site must process these CNO-group elements and return this material to the cluster to be incorporated into the present population of low mass stars either before, during, or after their formation.

A popular model which fits these constraints is the incorporation of ejecta from intermediate mass (3-6$`M_{}`$) AGB stars undergoing hot bottom burning and third dredge-up (see Ventura et al., 2001), although difficulties such as the establishment of an O-Na anti-correlation remain (see for example Denissenkov & Herwig, 2003). However, as is discussed in Briley, Smith, & Claver (2001) and BCS02, the quantities of material required to produce the observed star-to-star differences among the low luminosity stars (most notably extreme C depletions), which are clearly not diluted as the convective envelopes deepen during RGB ascent, rules out any sort of simple accretion model. Indeed, for the present M13 stars, roughly 70% of a C-poor MS star’s total mass must be captured ejecta if the accreted matter is completely free of C (see BCS02). It is of course unclear how such an enormous amount of material can be returned to the cluster without appealing to a shallow initial mass function (see Briley et al., 2001), nor how the present stars can sweep up the necessary mass of ejecta (although a novel look at accretion by Thoul et al., 2002, suggests significant quantities of AGB ejecta could be captured by stars in clusters with high central concentrations, it should be noted that M13 is definitely not a cluster with a high central concentration). We note in Figure 6 that the depletions in C do appear smaller in the more metal-rich clusters M71 and 47 Tuc in accord with the prediction the of AGB ejecta models of Ventura et al. (2001). Yet at the same time, if one presumes the highest \[C/Fe\] SGB/MSTO stars in M13 and M5 to represent the original (accretion free) C abundance of the cluster stars, they are still some 0.4 dex more C-poor than their 47 Tuc/M71 counterparts, implying either truly primordial (i.e., pre-accretion) differences in at least C or that nearly all the present stars in M13 and M5 have undergone at least some accretion of C-poor material. However, the spread in \[N/Fe\] is essentially identical among all four clusters. Clearly, knowledge of the patterns of \[O/Fe\] and \[Na/Fe\] among the present stars would help constrain the AGB ejecta theories.

An interesting counterpoint to this model is the scenario suggested by Carbon et al. (1982) and Trefzger et al. (1983) to explain similar results among M92 and M15 SGB stars — that the stars of these clusters were inhomogeneously “polluted” by an injection of raw C from intermediate mass AGB stars which is subsequently converted into N in the present stars before SGB evolution thereby explaining both the C deficiencies and large N enhancements as well as star-to-star differences in (C+N). This has the additional advantage of requiring considerably more modest composition modifications (a factor of 4 or so in C from star to star), which in turn lowers the mass of captured ejecta required. However, to explain the large C depletions already in place by the MSTO, significant processing of the envelope through a region of CN-cycling must have taken place while the stars occupied the MS. One then returns to the difficulty of mixing in such stars discussed above.

Another site of the proton-capture reactions has recently been suggested by Li & Burstein (2003), who note that the high mass (250-300 $`M_{}`$) zero metallicity models of Fryer, Woosley, & Heger (2001) tend to mix He and He-burning products into their H-burning shells during the later stages of He-burning. This fresh C, N, O is partially processed into N while at the same time, the stars expand into red supergiants. If mass loss also occurs at this point, the cluster could be seeded with freshly produced C/O-poor, N-rich material. Such a scenario is presented within the context of the cluster formation history of Cayrel (1986) — that the GCs formed from primordial material (zero-metal) that was subsequently enriched by the supernovae of massive stars before low mass stars could form. However, the problem remains that the production/seeding and mixing of the heavy-elements must be decoupled from that of the light-elements in order to explain the remarkable homogeneity of Fe, Ti, Ca, etc. within the GCs. In the context of GC formation in a well mixed supershell (e.g. Brown, Burkert, & Truran, 1991) this is difficult to explain if the CNO-modified material is ejected prior to the driving supernovae and subsequent supershell expansion/mixing.

The entire Keck/LRIS user community owes a huge debt to Jerry Nelson, Gerry Smith, Bev Oke, and many other people who have worked to make the Keck Telescope and LRIS a reality. We are grateful to the W. M. Keck Foundation, and particularly its late president, Howard Keck, for the vision to fund the construction of the W. M. Keck Observatory. We also wish to express our thanks to Roger Bell whose SSG code was instrumental in this project and the anonymous referee for their suggestions. Partial support was provided by the National Science Foundation under grant AST-0098489 to MMB and grant AST-0205951 to JGC and by the F. John Barlow professorship and UW Oshkosh Faculty Development Program (MMB).

## Appendix A TABLES OF OBSERVED INDICES AND RESULTING ABUNDANCES

## Appendix B UPDATE ON ANOMALOUS STARS PREVIOUSLY OBSERVED IN M5

In Cohen et al. (2002), we studied the CH bands in a large sample of stars in M5. Even taking into account the substantial star-to-star variation seen among the CH band strengths of the stars in our sample, we denoted six of these stars as anomalous. Since that time, we have checked the data for these stars yet again. We have found that two of the six stars were misidentified. C18206\_0533 with V=18.42 is actually C18188\_0733, with BVI = 17.71, 17.03, 16.17. With this correction, as compared to the bulk of our M5 sample (see Figures 8 and 9 of Cohen et al., 2002) the star has normal CH for its $`T_{eff}`$, although its uvCN is still anomalously strong, but not as much as previously. Also, star C18211\_0559 (V=18.06) is actually C18191\_0559, with BVI = 18.27, 17.57, 16.74. Its CN is now reasonable for its corrected $`V`$ mag, but its CH index is still unexpectedly strong.

In our earlier paper, we presented low accuracy radial velocities from the LRIS spectra at H$`\alpha `$ which suggested that 4 of the 6 stars classified as anomalous are radial velocity members of M5. Such data was not available for one star, while the radial velocity of C18211\_0559 (now identified as C18191\_0559) was 25 km/sec higher than that of the cluster.

To verify the membership of C18191\_0559 in M5, we obtained low SNR spectra with HIRES (Vogt et al., 1994) for it and for a second star from the LRIS sample. A single 1200 sec exposure for each was made on May 1, 2002, a night with considerable clouds. The HIRES slit for one of these two also included a second M5 star. The heliocentric radial velocities for these three stars derived from the NaD lines are presented in Table 6. The radial velocity for M5 found by Ramírez & Cohen (2002) from an extensive high dispersion analysis of stars over a wide range in luminosity is +55.0 km/sec, so we conclude all three of these stars are members.


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# Simple external cavity diode laser

## I Introduction

Well-known achievements in atomic physics of the last two decades became possible due to the progress in the semiconductor diode lasers. External cavity diode lasers (ECDL) are the most important in this context. They are able to produce powerful coherent radiation in the vicinity of many important atomic resonances. Details of various diode laser designs and laser performance are described in a number of papers, see, e.g., Refs. Wieman91RSI ; MacAdam92AJP ; Maki93OC ; Corwin98AO ; Yashchuk00RSI .

Most popular arrangement of an external cavity of a diode laser is based on the grating feedback in the Littrow configuration, Fig. 1. In such resonator, the grating reflects back to the diode the radiation in non-zero diffraction order. The laser output coupling is performed through zero diffraction order of the grating. Although such resonator configuration looks the simplest possible there are some inconveniences in its practical realization. In the present paper we describe a modified diode laser resonator that is more efficient and convenient. This approach to the laser wavelength selection by grating is based on our previous experience with dye lasers Ishchenko80 . Another source of helpful ideas for this work was an excellent monograph Malyshev79  devoted to the classical spectral instruments.

## II Littrow resonator

Performance of the laser having Littrow resonator (Fig. 1) is determined by the three major factors: grating angular dispersion, grating reflection coefficient and output coupling coefficient. The grating formula for the Littrow configuration,

$$2d\mathrm{sin}\theta =m\lambda ,$$
(1)
allows to deduce the angular dispersion, $`D`$, of the grating,

$$D\frac{d\theta }{d\lambda }=\frac{m}{2d\mathrm{cos}\theta }.$$
(2)
Here, $`d`$ is the distance between two neighbouring groves of the grating, $`m`$ is the diffraction order. From this expression one can conclude that the angular dispersion, $`D`$, is growing if $`d`$ is decreasing. It motivates ones to use in most designs of the laser external cavities the gratings having large density of groves.

One can modify the expression (2) for $`D`$ by substituting the diffraction order $`m`$ from the grating formula (1) and obtain,

$$D=\lambda ^1\mathrm{tan}\theta .$$
(3)
This equation shows that the angular dispersion of the grating and consequently the frequency resolution do not depend on the density of groves if one works at predefined diffraction angle $`\theta `$. This conclusion allows to make an important simplification of the design by using cheaper and better quality gratings having low density of groves.

Another conclusion from Eq. (3) is that the angular dispersion is larger at larger diffraction angles $`\theta `$. The drawback of working at large $`\theta `$ is that for an ordinary flat grating the reflection coefficient decreases at large $`\theta `$. One knows (see, e.g., Malyshev79 ) that the reflection at large diffraction angles can be increased by using the gratings having the groves of triangular shape that increases the grating blazing angle. Consequently, the gratings having low density of groves have an additional advantage because for such gratings a modern technology gives better quality of groves.

## III V-shape resonator

Another important parameter determined laser performance is the magnitude of the resonator output coupling. Optimal output coupling is a complicated function of the laser medium gain, resonator losses and power saturation mechanism. In practice, one uses to try a few output couplers to find out the right one for better laser performance. For the Littrow resonator in Fig. 1 the output coupling is determined by the properties of particular grating and cannot be changed by will.

One way to solve this problem is to use an extra reflector inside a Littrow resonator Wieman91RSI . We propose here to use an output coupling mirror in a V-shape resonator, Fig. 2.

The grating used in this work had 600 groves/mm and the blazing angle equal $`30^0`$ specified by the manufacturer. This blazing angle is determined by the orientation of the main surface of the grove (see insert in Fig. 2). This surface of the grove would allow us to work at the diffraction angles $`\theta 30^0`$. Technology of the grating production is such that the groves have a triangular shape and one can use another surface of the grove to work at much larger blazing angle Malyshev79 . In our case it allows us to work at the blazing angle, $`\theta =69^0`$, that corresponds to the 4-th diffraction order for $`\lambda =0.78\mu `$. Reflection coefficient of our grating in the 4-th order was $`60\%`$. The reflection coefficient in the 0-th order at $`\theta =69^0`$ appeared to be very low, $`1\%`$. In fact, this circumstance has motivated us to modify the usual Littrow resonator.

We have used standard Mitsubishi laser diode, ML6XX24 series, without a special antireflection coating on the crystal facet. Concequently, the laser resonator consists of the two, one is formed by the diode crystal itself and another is formed by the external resonator. Fine tuning of the laser frequency needs in this case simultaneous tuning of these two resonators to avoid nonlinearities due to the frequency pulling effect. It was performed in our laser by synchronous linear modulation of the diode current and the grating tilting by piezo transducer. The length of the external resonator was equal to 3.5 cm.

Stable laser characteristics demands rather precise temperature stabilization of the laser diode. It was done in the setup with the help of Peltier element and feedback electronics. The temperature stability was better than 1 mK. The external laser resonator was not temperature stabilized actively. Instead, it was placed on aluminium plate that had good thermal contact with the massive metal optical table.

## IV Laser performance

The specified wavelength of the laser diode was 785 nm at 25 C. In the experiments with the rubidium vapour the laser diode was kept at 14 C and its own frequency at such temperature was $`781`$ nm. Power of the laser diode itself (without an external resonator) was 35 mW at the electrical current through the diode equal 72 mA and the temperature equal 14 C.

The laser produces two beams (Fig. 2). Direction of the main beam does not depend on the grating and mirror orientation. Direction of the second beam changes if the laser wavelength is tuned like it does in the Littrow resonator. Power of the external cavity diode laser having the flat output coupling mirror $`T=45\%`$ was 18 mW, combined from 14 mW of the main output beam and 4 mW of the second beam. The output coupling mirror having $`T60\%`$ gives 21 mW in the main beam and 3 mW in the second beam. Thus, as one would expect, an adjustment of the output coupling mirror is significant for the laser performance. For the V-shape resonator such adjustment appears to be rather simple procedure.

The laser frequency characteristics were measured using the setup shown in Fig. 3. The wavelength of the laser radiation was controlled by the spectrograph having the dispersion equal 0.36 nm/cm on the TV screen and precise $`\lambda `$–meter having sensitivity equal 50 MHz. Rough frequency tuning of the laser radiation was performed by rotating the mirror that was placed on the tuning head. For the output coupling mirror having $`T=45\%`$ the laser wavelength was tuned between 775-785 nm at a constant diode temperature equal 14 C. The range of the laser frequency tuning decreases if one uses output coupling mirror having larger transmission.

Fine frequency of the laser radiation was performed by simultaneous tilting the grating and linear modulation of the diode electrical current. Frequency tuning was tested by measuring the linear transmission spectra of Rb vapour. For this purpose a weak laser beam passed through a 7.5 cm cell containing Rb vapour at room temperature. The cell contained natural mixture of Rb isotopes and no buffer gas. (The strong counter propagating beam (Fig. 3) was closed in this measurements.) The data are presented in Fig. 4a. This spectrum is the average of 16 frequency scans taken during $`1`$ s. This result shows that the range of the laser frequency fine tuning is larger than 9 GHz. Small decrease of the laser power visible in the Fig. 4a is due to the diode current modulation mentioned above.

One can compare the measured transmission spectra with the calculated spectrum. The calculation was done using the hyperfine parameters of the 87Rb and 85Rb isotopes from Barwood91APB  and the decay rate of the $`{}_{}{}^{2}P_{3/2}^{}`$ state equal 6 MHz Schmieder70PRA . As an example, the level structure of 87Rb is shown in Fig. 5. The calculated transmission spectra is shown in Fig. 4b. The measured transmission is reproduced by the calculations within 5% if one uses the Rb vapour pressure from Handbook93 . The vapour pressure from Nesmeyanov63  needs $``$20% increase.

Passive stability of the laser frequency was measured by the two methods. In the first, the transmitted radiation intensity in the vicinity of Rb absorption lines was observed. The laser frequency drift appeared to be $``$12 MHz/min during in approximately 20 min. Another measurement was done with the help of the $`\lambda `$-meter. It gives similar value for the frequency drift, 15 MHz/min, for the 20 min observation period.

An important parameter of the laser is the radiation linewidth. It can be measured studying the beats of two independent lasers. We have estimated the radiation linewidth using the saturated absorption resonances in Rb vapour. For this, the transmission of weak laser beam was measured in the presence of strong counterpropagating laser beam. The spectra are presented in Fig. 4c and in a larger scale in Fig. 6. These spectra are an average of 16 tracks taken during $``$1 s. The width (HWHM) of the nonlinear resonance $`F_g=2F_e=3`$ appears to be equal $`15`$ MHz. This width is composed Rautian79  from the fluorescence linewidth (3 MHz for our transition Schmieder70PRA ), the width of the Bennett peak in the velocity distribution in the upper state, estimated as 11 MHz for the strong beam intensity used in the experiment and the laser frequency linewidth. From these data one can estimate that the laser radiation linewidth is on the order of 1 MHz.

## V Conclusions

The diode laser having V-shape external cavity is described. The external cavity is a Littrow resonator modified by an additional output coupling mirror. This mirror allows easily adjust the level of the laser output coupling and thus optimize the laser performance, obtaining necessary frequency tuning range, or necessary output power. In the described laser the radiation power constitutes $``$50% of the laser power without an external resonator. The fine frequency tuning range of the laser is $``$9 GHz and the radiation linewidth is estimated as being on the order of 1 MHz.

Proposed V-shape external resonator has some advantages in comparison with the traditional Littrow resonator. It is easier now to optimize the diffraction grating that has to have just maximal possible reflection coefficient. Another advantage is that the direction of the main output beam is unaffected by the laser frequency tuning.

## Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant RFBR 03-02-17553) and by the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences through the project ”Laser cooling of gases in magneto-optical traps”.