Galactic Interstellar Abundance Surveys with IUE. III. Silicon, Manganese, Iron, Sulfur, and Zinc

Abstract

This paper continues a survey of intestellar densities, abundances, and cloud structure in the Galaxy using the IUE satellite. A statistical data set of 223 O3-B2.5 stars is constructed, including 53 stars in the Galactic halo. It is found that S II lines in B stars, of luminosity classes IV and V, have possible contamination from stellar S II, particular for stars with v sin i less than 200 km/s. The mean logarithmic depletions are -1.00, -1.19. -0.63, and -0.23 (Si, Mn,Fe,S, Zn). Depletions of Si, Mn, and Fe correlate with the mean hydrogen density n-bar along the line of sight, with a turnover for n-bar greater than 1/cm. Sulfur depletions correlate with n-bar along the line of sight. The slight Zn depletion correlation also appears to be statistically insignificant. No correlation of depletion is found with the physical density derived from H2 rotational states in 21 lines of sight. Depletion variations in the disk are consistent with a Galactic abundance gradient or with enhanced mean depletions in the anticenter region.