Fluorine Abundance Variations in M4

Abstract

Abundance variations in globular clusters have been observed for the light elements C, N, O, Na, Al, as well as sometimes Mg. Such variations can be understood as the result of H-burning. In particular for the globular cluster M4, anticorrelations of O with Na and Al have been established from previous studies. In this study, we discuss fluorine abundances in a sample of M4 red-giants derived from infrared high-resolution spectra obtained with Pheonix on Gemini South. Our results show that fluorine now can be added to the suite of elements that are shown to vary in M4: the abundance of ¹⁹F is found to be anti-correlated with the sodium and aluminium variations. These results provide further evidence that H-burning is indeed responsible for the observed chemical inhomegeneities. Moreover, from comparisons with stellar models, tighter constraints on the mass of the polluting star in this globular cluster are extablished.