Abundances of Galactic Bulge red giants

Abundances of the four light elements O, Na, Mg, and Al are measured in 13 core He-burning giant stars (red clump stars) and 40 red giant branch stars in four 25' fields spanning the bulge from -3 to -12{deg} galactic latitude.

Special care was taken in the abundance analysis, performing a differential analysis with respect to the metal-rich solar-neighbourhood giant mu Leo, which best resembles our bulge sample stars. This approach minimises systematic effects that can arise in the analysis of cool metal-rich stars due to continuum definition issues and blending by molecular lines (CN) and, cancels out possible model atmosphere deficiencies.