Sculptor-ing'' the galaxy? The chemical compositions of red giants in the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy

We used high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectra obtained with the Very Large Telescope and the UV-Visual Echelle Spectrograph to determine abundances of 17 elements in four red giants in the Sculptor (Scl) dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Our [Fe/H]-values range from -2.10 to -0.97, confirming previous findings of a large metallicity spread. We combined our data with similar data for five Scl giants studied recently by Shetrone et al. to form one of the largest samples of high-resolution abundances yet obtained for a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, covering essentially the full known metallicity range in this galaxy. These properties allow us to establish trends of [X/Fe] with [Fe/H] for many elements X. The trends are significantly different from the trends seen in Galactic halo and globular cluster stars. This conclusion is evident for most of the elements from oxygen to manganese. We compare our Scl sample with the most similar Galactic counterparts and find substantial differences remain even with these stars. The many discrepancies in the relationships between [X/Fe] as seen in Scl compared with Galactic field stars indicate that our halo cannot be made up in bulk of stars similar to those presently seen in dwarf spheroidal galaxies like Scl, corroborating similar conclusions reached by Shetrone et al., Fulbright, and Tolstoy et al. These results have serious implications for the Searle-Zinn and hierarchical galaxy formation scenarios. We also find that the most metal-rich star in our sample is a heavy element-rich star. This star and the [Ba/Eu] trend we see indicate that asymptotic giant branch stars must have played an important role in the evolution of the s-process elements in Scl. A very high percentage of such heavy-element stars are now known in dwarf spheroidals compared with the halo, further mitigating against the formation of the halo from such objects.