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S4N: A Spectroscopic Survey of Stars in the Solar Neighborhood

[ABRIDGED] We report the results of a high-resolution spectroscopic survey of all the stars more luminous than Mv = 6.5 mag within 14.5 pc from the Sun. We derive stellar parameters and perform a preliminary abundance and kinematic analysis of the F-G-K stars in the sample. The inferred metallicity ([Fe/H]) distribution is centered at about -0.1 dex, and shows a standard deviation of 0.2 dex. We identify a number of metal-rich K-type stars which appear to be very old, confirming the claims for the existence of such stars in the solar neighborhood. With atmospheric effective temperatures and gravities derived independently of the spectra, we find that our classical LTE model-atmosphere analysis of metal-rich (and mainly K-type) stars provides discrepant abundances from neutral and ionized lines of several metals. Based on transitions of majority species, we discuss abundances of 16 chemical elements. In agreement with earlier studies we find that the abundance ratios to iron of Si, Sc, Ti, Co, and Zn become smaller as the iron abundance increases until approaching the solar values, but the trends reverse for higher iron abundances. At any given metallicity, stars with a `low' galactic rotational velocity tend to have high abundances of Mg, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, Co, Zn, and Eu, but low abundances of Ba, Ce, and Nd. The Sun appears deficient by roughly 0.1 dex in O, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, Y, Ce, Nd, and Eu, compared to its immediate neighbors with similar iron abundances.