Carina Project VIII. {alpha}-element abundances

These two stellar populations display distinct [Fe/H] and [Mg/H] distributions: their mean iron abundances are -2.15+/-0.06dex ({sigma}=0.28), and -1.75+/-0.03dex ({sigma}=0.21), respectively. The two iron distributions differ at the 75% level. This supports preliminary results.

Moreover, we found that the old and intermediate-age stellar populations have mean [Mg/H] abundances of -1.91+/-0.05dex ({sigma}=0.22) and -1.35+/-0.03dex ({sigma}=0.22); these differ at the 83% level. Carina's - element abundances agree, within 1{sigma}, with similar abundances for field halo stars and for cluster (Galactic and Magellanic) stars. The same outcome applies to nearby dwarf spheroidals and ultra-faint dwarf galaxies in the iron range covered by Carina stars.

Finally, we found evidence of a clear correlation between Na and O abundances, thus suggesting that Carina's chemical enrichment history is quite different from that in the globular clusters.