  We performed a uniform and detailed abundance analysis of 12 refractory
elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Ni, Co, Sc, Mn, and V) for a sample of
257 G- and K-type evolved stars from the CORALIE planet search program. To
date, only one of these stars is known to harbor a planetary companion. We
aimed to characterize this large sample of evolved stars in terms of chemical
abundances and kinematics, thus setting a solid base for further analysis of
planetary properties around giant stars. This sample, being homogeneously
analyzed, can be used as a comparison sample for other planet-related studies,
as well as for different type of studies related to stellar and Galaxy
astrophysics. The abundances of the chemical elements were determined using an
LTE abundance analysis relative to the Sun, with the spectral synthesis code
MOOG and a grid of Kurucz ATLAS9 atmospheres. To separate the Galactic stellar
populations both a purely kinematical approach and a chemical method were
applied. We confirm the overabundance of Na in giant stars compared to the
field FGK dwarfs. This enhancement might have a stellar evolutionary character,
but departures from LTE may also produce a similar enhancement. Our chemical
separation of stellar populations also suggests a "gap" in metallicity between
the thick-disk and high-alpha metal-rich stars, as previously observed in
dwarfs sample from HARPS. The present sample, as most of the giant star
samples, also suffers from the B - V colour cut-off, which excludes low-log g
stars with high metallicities, and high-logg star with low-[Fe/H]. For future
studies of planet occurrence dependence on stellar metallicity around these
evolved stars we suggest to use a sub-sample of stars in a "cut-rectangle" in
the logg - [Fe/H] diagram to overcome the aforementioned issue.
