Carbon and nitrogen abundances in giant stars of the metal-poor globular cluster M92

Zinn in 1973 and 1977 and Norris and Zinn in 1977 showed that in M92 and several other metal-poor globular clusters the G bands (mostly due to CH) in the spectra of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are systematically weaker than those found in the less highly evolved subgiant branch (SGB) stars. If carbon is depleted in the atmospheres of evolved stars because material at the base of the envelope, processed through the CN cycle, has been mixed with the material above, then the atmospheric nitrogen abundance should be correspondingly increased. In this paper we test the hypothesis that C and N abundances in M92 giants are negatively correlated as the evolutionary state becomes more advanced. We find that this simple hypothesis is not adequate to describe the complex behavior of C and N in the cluster giants.