A new r-process star with low abundances of r-process elements
Metal-poor stars with measurable r-process element abundances provide key clues to the production site(s) of the r-process and how its products are mixed with the surrounding medium. While the number of stars exhibiting strong enhancements of r-process elements has grown over the years, the lower &q...
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| Format: | Article |
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IOP Publishing
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121345 |
| _version_ | 1826189296493658112 |
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| author | Frebel, Anna L. Yu, QinQin Jacobson, Heather |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Frebel, Anna L. Yu, QinQin Jacobson, Heather |
| author_sort | Frebel, Anna L. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Metal-poor stars with measurable r-process element abundances provide key clues to the production site(s) of the r-process and how its products are mixed with the surrounding medium. While the number of stars exhibiting strong enhancements of r-process elements has grown over the years, the lower "floor" of r-process enrichment in metal-poor stars has yet to be established, largely in part due to the difficulty in detecting weak neutron-capture element absorption lines in stellar spectra. Here we present detailed abundances of 16 neutron-capture elements for a star exhibiting the lowest level of r-process enrichment yet detected and still following the solar system r-process pattern. Taken into consideration with most of the r- process enriched stars currently in the literature, the range of r-process element enrichment spanned by this sample is at least ∼1.3dex or a factor of more than 20. That the r-process abundance pattern is unchanged while the degree of enrichment varies may suggest that the r- process yields are constant while the gas mass into which they are mixed varies. Given that all stars have similar [Fe/H] values then suggests that only one or few previous stellar generations provided the observed chemical abundances, meaning that perhaps only one r-process event occurred prior to their formation. This would be consistent with a (near) constant r-process yield per event. Obtaining detailed element abundances for stars with mild r-process element enhancements is necessary to better constrain the ubiquity of the r-process pattern, the yields of r-process elements, and the site of its production. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:12:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/121345 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:12:52Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1213452022-09-30T08:20:30Z A new r-process star with low abundances of r-process elements Frebel, Anna L. Yu, QinQin Jacobson, Heather Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Metal-poor stars with measurable r-process element abundances provide key clues to the production site(s) of the r-process and how its products are mixed with the surrounding medium. While the number of stars exhibiting strong enhancements of r-process elements has grown over the years, the lower "floor" of r-process enrichment in metal-poor stars has yet to be established, largely in part due to the difficulty in detecting weak neutron-capture element absorption lines in stellar spectra. Here we present detailed abundances of 16 neutron-capture elements for a star exhibiting the lowest level of r-process enrichment yet detected and still following the solar system r-process pattern. Taken into consideration with most of the r- process enriched stars currently in the literature, the range of r-process element enrichment spanned by this sample is at least ∼1.3dex or a factor of more than 20. That the r-process abundance pattern is unchanged while the degree of enrichment varies may suggest that the r- process yields are constant while the gas mass into which they are mixed varies. Given that all stars have similar [Fe/H] values then suggests that only one or few previous stellar generations provided the observed chemical abundances, meaning that perhaps only one r-process event occurred prior to their formation. This would be consistent with a (near) constant r-process yield per event. Obtaining detailed element abundances for stars with mild r-process element enhancements is necessary to better constrain the ubiquity of the r-process pattern, the yields of r-process elements, and the site of its production. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-1255160) 2019-06-18T18:05:21Z 2019-06-18T18:05:21Z 2016-01 2019-03-22T12:47:22Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1742-6588 1742-6596 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121345 Frebel, A et al. “A New r-Process Star with Low Abundances of r-Process Elements.” Journal of Physics: Conference Series 665 (January 2016): 012051 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/665/1/012051 Journal of Physics: Conference Series Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 unported license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ application/pdf IOP Publishing IOP Publishing |
| spellingShingle | Frebel, Anna L. Yu, QinQin Jacobson, Heather A new r-process star with low abundances of r-process elements |
| title | A new r-process star with low abundances of r-process elements |
| title_full | A new r-process star with low abundances of r-process elements |
| title_fullStr | A new r-process star with low abundances of r-process elements |
| title_full_unstemmed | A new r-process star with low abundances of r-process elements |
| title_short | A new r-process star with low abundances of r-process elements |
| title_sort | new r process star with low abundances of r process elements |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121345 |
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