Abundances of alpha-Process Elements in Thin-Disk, Thick-Disk, and Halo
  Stars of the Galaxy: Non-LTE Analysis
  The atmospheric parameters and abundances of Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti have been
determined for 20 stars using the Gaia DR2 parallaxes, high-resolution spectra,
and the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) line formation modeling.
A sample of stars with homogeneous data on the abundances of alpha-process
elements has thus been increased to 94. It is shown that applying a non-LTE
approach and classical 1D atmospheric models with spectroscopically determined
surface gravities based on Fe~I and Fe~II lines yields reliable results.
Analysis of the full sample confirms the conclusions of earlier studies
indicating enhancements of Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti relative to Fe for halo and
thick-disk stars, and larger enhancements for the thick-disk stars compared to
the thin-disk stars of similar metallicities. The following new results are
obtained. The ratios [Mg/Fe], [Si/Fe], [Ca/Fe], and [Ti/Fe] in the thick disk
remain constant and similar to each other at the level 0.3 when [Fe/H] < -0.4,
and fall off when the metallicity becomes higher, suggesting the onset of the
production of iron in Type Ia supernovae. Halo stars have the same [alpha/Fe]
values independent of their distance (within ~ 8 kpc of the Sun), providing
evidence for a universal evolution of the abundances of alpha-process elements
in different parts of the Galaxy. The enhancements relative to iron for halo
stars are, on average, similar, at the level 0.3 dex, for Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti.
These data are important for constraining the nucleosynthesis models. The
star-to-star scatter of [alpha/Fe] increases for [Fe/H] < -2.6, while the
scatter of the ratios between the different alpha-process elements remains
small, possibly indicating incomplete mixing of nucleosynthesis products at the
epoch of the formation of these stars.
