THE CHEMICAL-COMPOSITION OF HD-196944 - A CARBON AND S-PROCESS RICH, VERY METAL-POOR STAR

An LTE abundance analysis of the post-AGE candidate star HD 196944 is presented based on high resolution, high S/N spectra. The radial veloc ity of HD 196944 is found to be -174 km s(-1) indicating that it belon gs to the halo population. The spectroscopic analysis provides the atm ospheric parameters T-eff = 5250 K, log g = 1.7 (cgs), xi(t) = 1.9 km s(-1) corresponding to those for G2-5 (bright) giants. A low iron abun dance, [Fe/H] = -2.45, is derived confirming the old, low mass nature of the star. With [C/Fe] = +1.4 and a mean s-process overabundance of [s/Fe] = +1.1 the peculiar atmospheric composition of HD 196944 is con firmed. Possible evolutionary stages of HD 196944, that can explain it s atmospheric parameters and composition, are discussed.