Uncertainties in stellar abundance analyses

Abstract

Over the last half-century quantitative stellar spectroscopy has made great progress. However, most stellar abundance analyses today still employ rather simplified models, which can introduce severe systematic errors swamping the observational errors. Some of these uncertainties for late-type stars are briefly reviewed here: atomic and molecular data, stellar parameters, model atmospheres and spectral line formation.

Invited review presented at IAU General Assembly JD15, July 2003