Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Vilnius University (Lituanie)
Keywords:
Astrophysics; spectroscopy; stellar evolution
Summary:
Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are among the first elements to form in the nucleosynthesis chain and comprise most of the mass of elements heavier than helium. These elements play important roles in stellar interior as sources of opacity and energy production through the CNO cycle, and thus affect the star’s lifetime, its position in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagramme, and its heavy-element yields. Carbon and its isotopes as well as nitrogen give a comprehensive information on material mixing during stellar evolution. I will present the ongoing work on CNO abundances in Galactic open cluster and field stars in the context of stellar and Galactic evolution modelling.