Discovery of a strongly r-process enhanced extremely metal-poor star LAMOST J110901.22+075441.8

We report the discovery of an extremely metal-poor (EMP) giant, LAMOST J110901.22+075441.8, which exhibits a large excess of r-process elements with [Eu/Fe] ∼ +1.16. The star is one of the newly discovered EMP stars identified from the LAMOST low-resolution spectroscopic survey and a high-resolution follow-up observation with the Subaru Telescope. Stellar parameters and elemental abundances have been determined from the Subaru spectrum. Accurate abundances for a total of 23 elements including 11 neutron-capture elements from Sr through Dy have been derived for LAMOST J110901.22+075441.8. The abundance pattern of LAMOST J110901.22+075441.8 in the range of C through Zn is in line with the "normal" population of EMP halo stars, except that it shows a notable underabundance in carbon. The heavy element abundance pattern of LAMOST J110901.22+075441.8 is in agreement with other well studied cool r−II metal-poor giants such as CS 22892–052 and CS 31082–001. The abundances of elements in the range from Ba through Dy match the scaled solar r-process pattern well. LAMOST J110901.22+075441.8 provides the first detailed measurements of neutron-capture elements among r–II stars at such low metallicity with [Fe/H] ≲ −3.4, and exhibits similar behavior as other r–II stars in the abundance ratio of Zr/Eu as well as Sr/Eu and Ba/Eu. (paper)