The main atmospheric parameters and abundances of the iron group elements ( vanadium , chromium , iron , cobalt and nickel ) are determined for 62 red giant “ clump ” stars revealed in the Galactic field by the Hipparcos orbiting observatory .
The stars form a homogeneous sample with the mean value of temperature T _ { eff } = 4750 \pm 160 K , of surface gravity log g = 2.41 \pm 0.26 and the mean value of metallicity { [ Fe / H ] } = -0.04 \pm 0.15 dex .
A Gaussian fit to the [ Fe/H ] distribution produces the mean \langle { [ Fe / H ] } \rangle = -0.01 and dispersion \sigma _ { [ Fe / H ] } = 0.08 .
The near-solar metallicity and small dispersion of \sigma _ { [ Fe / H ] } of clump stars of the Galaxy obtained in this work confirm the theoretical model of the Hipparcos clump by Girardi & Salaris ( 2001 ) .
This suggests that nearby clump stars are ( in the mean ) relatively young objects , reflecting mainly the near-solar metallicities developed in the local disk during the last few Gyrs of its history .
We find iron group element to iron abundance ratios in clump giants to be close to solar .