The Abundance and Age Distributions of 500 F Stars in the Solar Neighbourhood

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Abstract
The uvby catalogue of Perry has been used, in conjunction with theoretical uvby colours and stellar evolutionary tracks, to obtain the metal abundance distribution and age distribution of F and G type dwarf stars within 100 pc of the Sun. Eighty-three per cent of stars with spectral type F5–G2 have metal content within a factor 2.5 of the solar abundance, and only 2 per cent have less than one-quarter the solar abundance. The metal abundance distribution, which contains more metal-rich stars than found in previous investigations of F and G dwarfs, has also been compared with the observed metal abundance distribution of G and K giants and the model galaxy calculations of Truran and Cameron. A comparison of the age distribution with evolutionary calculations implies that the rate of star formation in the Galaxy may not have decreased by a large factor in the last 10 billion years. Space velocities have been computed for 200 stars and the correlation of abundances with galactic orbits studied. Little evidence has been found for a radial composition gradient in the Galaxy, suggesting that the abundance variation found by Janes and McClure is restricted to CN.

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