Observations of Neutron-Capture Elements in the Early Galaxy
Abstract
Neutron-capture elements in low metallicity Galactic halo stars vary widely both in overall contents and detailed abundance patterns. This review discusses recent observational results on the n-capture elements, discussing the implications for early Galactic nucleosynthesis of: (a) the star-to-star ``bulk'' variations in the n-capture/Fe abundance ratios; (b) the distinct signature of rapid n-capture synthesis events in many (most?) of the lowest metallicity stars; (c) the existence of metal-poor stars heavily enriched in the products of slow n-capture synthesis reactions; and (d) the now-routine detection of radioactive thorium (and even uranium in one and possibly two cases) in the spectra of metal-poor stars.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0210125,
title = {Observations of Neutron-Capture Elements in the Early Galaxy},
author = {C. Sneden and J. J. Cowan and J. E. Lawler},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0210125},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 3 figures; To appear in the Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Nuclei in the Cosmos