The Origin of B-Type Runaway Stars: Non-LTE Abundances as a Diagnostic
  There are two accepted mechanisms to explain the origin of runaway OB-type
stars: the Binary Supernova Scenario (BSS), and the Cluster Ejection Scenario
(CES). In the former, a supernova explosion within a close binary ejects the
secondary star, while in the latter close multi-body interactions in a dense
cluster cause one or more of the stars to be ejected from the region at high
velocity. Both mechanisms have the potential to affect the surface composition
of the runaway star. TLUSTY non-LTE model atmosphere calculations have been
used to determine atmospheric parameters and carbon, nitrogen, magnesium and
silicon abundances for a sample of B-type runaways. These same analytical tools
were used by Hunter et al. (2009) for their analysis of 50 B-type open cluster
Galactic stars (i.e. non-runaways). Effective temperatures were deduced using
the silicon-ionization balance technique, surface gravities from Balmer line
profiles and microturbulent velocities derived using the Si spectrum. The
runaways show no obvious abundance anomalies when compared with stars in the
open clusters. The runaways do show a spread in composition which almost
certainly reflects the Galactic abundance gradient and a range in the
birthplaces of the runaways in the Galactic disk. Since the observed Galactic
abundance gradients of C, N, Mg and Si are of a similar magnitude, the
abundance ratios (e.g., N/Mg) are, as obtained, essentially uniform across the
sample.
