With an aim of establishing how the [ S/Fe ] ratios behave at the very low metallicity regime down to [ Fe/H ] \sim - 3 , we conducted a non-LTE analysis of near-IR S i triplet lines ( multiplet 3 ) at 10455–10459 \AA for a dozen of very metal-poor stars ( -3.2 \ltsim [ Fe/H ] \ltsim - 1.9 ) based on the new observational data obtained with IRCS+AO188 of the Subaru Telescope .
It turned out that the resulting [ S/Fe ] values are only moderately supersolar at [ S/Fe ] \sim +0.2–0.5 irrespective of the metallicity .
While this “ flat ” tendency is consistent with the trend recently corroborated by Spite et al .
( 2011 , A & A , 528 , A9 ) based on the S i 9212/9228/9237 lines ( multiplet 1 ) , it disaffirms the possibility of conspicuously large [ S/Fe ] ( up to \sim + 0.8 ) at [ Fe/H ] \sim - 3 that we once suggested in our first report on the S abundances of disk/halo stars using S i 10455–10459 lines ( Takeda & Takada-Hidai 2011 , PASJ , 63 , S537 ) .
Given these new observational facts , we withdraw our previous argument , since we consider that [ S/Fe ] ’ s of some most metal-poor objects were overestimated in that paper ; the likely cause for this failure is also discussed .