High-precision chemical abundances of Sequoia

We measure abundances of Na, Mg, Si, Ti, Cr, Mn, Ni, Zn, Y, and Ba from a differential abundance analysis on high signal-to-noise ratio, high-resolution spectra from new observations and from archival data. We compare precisely-measured chemical abundances of 12 Sequoia candidates with those of typical halo stars from literature, which include also stars from Gaia-Enceladus. This allows us to characterize Sequoia and compare it to another Galactic building block.

The comparison is made after putting all the abundances onto the same scale using standard stars. There are significant difference in [Na/Fe], [Mg/Fe], [Ca/Fe], [Ti/Fe], [Zn/Fe], and [Y/Fe] between Sequoia and Gaia-Enceladus stars at -1.8<[Fe/H]<-1.4 in the sense that these abundance ratios are lower in Sequoia. These differences are similar to those seen between Gaia-Enceladus and in-situ stars at higher metallicity, suggesting that Sequoia is affected by type~Ia supernovae at lower metallicity than Gaia-Enceladus.

We also confirm that the low [Mg/Fe] of Sequoia is seen in literature and in surveys, namely APOGEE DR16 and GALAH DR3, if the stars are kinematically selected in the same way. Sequoia stars have a distinct chemical abundance pattern and can be chemically separated from in-situ stars or Gaia-Enceladus stars if abundances are measured with sufficient precision, namely sigma([X/Fe])<0.07dex.