The Gaia -ESO survey: 3D NLTE abundances in the open cluster NGC 2420 suggest atomic diffusion and turbulent mixing are at the origin of chemical abundance variations
Atomic diusion and mixing processes in stellar interiors influence the structure and the surface composition of stars. Some of these processes cannot yet be modelled from the first principles, and they require calibrations. This limits their applicability in stellar models used for studies of stellar populations and Galactic evolution. Aims. Our main goal is to put constraints on the stellar structure and evolution models using new refined measurements of the chemical composition in stars of a Galactic open cluster. Methods.We used medium-resolution, 19 200 R 21 500, optical spectra of stars in the open cluster NGC2420 obtained within the Gaia-ESO survey. The sample covers all evolutionary stages from the main sequence to the red giant branch. Stellar parameters were derived using a combined Bayesian analysis of spectra, 2MASS photometry, and astrometric data from Gaia DR2. The abundances of Mg, Ca, Fe, and Li were determined from non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) synthetic spectra, which were computed using one-dimensional (1D) and averaged three-dimensional (3D) model atmospheres. We compare our results with a grid of Code d'Evolution Stellaire Adaptatif et Modulaire (CESTAM) stellar evolution models, which include atomic diusion, turbulent, and rotational mixing. Results. We find prominent evolutionary trends in the abundances of Fe, Ca, Mg, and Li with the mass of the stars in the cluster. Furthermore, Fe, Mg, and Ca show a depletion at the cluster turn-o, but the abundances gradually increase and flatten near the base of the red giant branch. The abundance trend for Li displays a signature of rotational mixing on the main sequence and abrupt depletion on the sub-giant branch, which is caused by advection of Li-poor material to the surface. The analysis of abundances combined with the CESTAM model predictions allows us to place limits on the parameter space of the models and to constrain the zone in the stellar interior, where turbulent mixing takes place. ; The work of E.S. was partially funded by the subsidy 3.9780.2017/8.9 allocated to Kazan Federal University for the state assignment in the sphere of scientific activities. MD acknowledges support by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) by these grants UIDB/04434/2020, UIDP/04434/2020 and PTDC/FIS-AST/30389/2017 and by FEDER – Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020-Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização by this grant POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030389. MD is supported in the form of a work contract funded by national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). M.D. acknowledges financial support from the "Programme National de Physique Stellaire" (PNPS) of the CNRS/INSU co-funded by the CEA and the CNES, France. We acknowledge support by the Collaborative Research centre SFB 881 (projects A5, A10), Heidelberg University, of the Deutsche Forschungsge-meinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). A.S. is partially supported by the grants ESP2017-82674-R (Spanish Government) and 2017-SGR-1131 (Gen-eralitat de Catalunya). TB was funded by the project grant "The New Milky Way" from the Knut and Alica Wallenberg Foundation, and project grant No. 2018-04857 from the Swedish Research Council. This work has made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www. cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/dpac/ consortium). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. Based on data products from observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory under programme ID 188.B-3002. These data products have been processed by the Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit (CASU) at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, and by the FLAMES/UVES reduction team at INAF/Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri. These data have been obtained from the Gaia-ESO Survey Data Archive, prepared and hosted by the Wide Field Astronomy Unit, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, which is funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. This work was partly supported by the European Union FP7 programme through ERC grant number 320360 and by the Leverhulme Trust through grant RPG-2012-541. We acknowledge the support from INAF and Ministero dell' Istruzione, dell' Università' e della Ricerca (MIUR) in the form of the grant "Premiale VLT 2012". The results presented here benefit from discussions held during the Gaia-ESO workshops and conferences supported by the ESF (European Science Foundation) through the GREAT Research Network Programme. We thank Jan Rybizki for a valuable input concerning the data representation. We thank Andreas Korn for a discussion on modelling the transport of elements. We thank an anonymous referee for their comments and suggestions.