ALBERT

Description: We present radial velocities, stellar parameters, and detailed abundances of 39 elements derived from high-resolution spectroscopic observations of red giant stars in the luminous, metal-poor globular cluster NGC 5824. We observe 26 stars in NGC 5824 using the Michigan/Magellan Fiber System (M2FS) and two stars using the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle spectrograph. We derive a mean metallicity of [Fe/H] = –1.94 ± 0.02 (statistical) ±0.10 (systematic). The metallicity dispersion of this sample of stars, 0.08 dex, is in agreement with previous work and does not exceed the expected observational errors. Previous work suggested an internal metallicity spread only when fainter samples of stars were considered, so we cannot exclude the possibility of an intrinsic metallicity dispersion in NGC 5824. The M2FS spectra reveal a large internal dispersion in [Mg/Fe], 0.28 dex, which is found in a few other luminous, metal-poor clusters. [Mg/Fe] is correlated with [O/Fe] and anticorrelated with [Na/Fe] and [Al/Fe]. There is no evidence for internal dispersion among the other α- or Fe-group abundance ratios. 25 of the 26 stars exhibit a n -capture enrichment pattern dominated by r -process nucleosynthesis (〈[Eu/Fe]〉 = +0.11 ± 0.12; 〈[Ba/Eu]〉 = –0.66 ± 0.05). Only one star shows evidence of substantial s -process enhancement ([Ba/Fe] = +0.56 ± 0.12; [Ba/Eu] = +0.38 ± 0.14), but this star does not exhibit other characteristics associated with s -process enhancement via mass transfer from a binary companion. The Pb and other heavy elements produced by the s -process suggest a time-scale of no more than a few hundred Myr for star formation and chemical enrichment, like the complex globular clusters M2, M22, and NGC 5286.