English

Rare Find: Discovery and chemo-dynamical properties of two s-process enhanced RR Lyrae stars

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2025-11-26 v2

Abstract

We report the serendipitous discovery of two RR Lyrae stars exhibiting significant s-process element enrichment, a rare class previously represented solely by TY Gruis. Our goal is to characterise these objects chemically and dynamically, exploring their origins and evolutionary histories. Using high-resolution spectroscopy from HERMES@AAT and UVES@VLT, we derived detailed chemical abundances of key s-process elements, carbon along with α\alpha-elements. We also employed Gaia DR3 astrometric data to analyse their kinematics, orbital properties, and classify their Galactic population membership. We compared observational results with theoretical asymptotic giant branch nucleosynthesis models to interpret their enrichment patterns. Both stars exhibit clear signatures of s-process enrichment, with significant overabundances in second-peak elements such as Ba and La compared to first-peak Y and Zr. Comparison with AGB nucleosynthesis models suggests their progenitors experienced pollution of s-process-rich material, consistent with early binary interactions. However, notable discrepancies in dilution factors highlight the need for more refined low-metallicity asymptotic giant branch (AGB) models. We also explore and discuss alternative scenarios, including sub-luminous post-AGB-like evolution or double episodes of mass transfer. Our findings confirm the existence of s-process-enhanced RR Lyrae stars and demonstrate the importance of combining chemical and dynamical diagnostics to unveil their complex evolutionary pathways. Future detailed binary evolution modelling and long-term orbital monitoring are essential to resolve their formation scenarios and assess the role of binarity in the evolution of pulsating variables.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.15723,
  title  = {Rare Find: Discovery and chemo-dynamical properties of two s-process enhanced RR Lyrae stars},
  author = {Valentina D'Orazi and Giuliano Iorio and Borbála Cseh and Chris Sneden and Hedieh Abdollahi and László Molnár and Alexey Bobrick and Giuseppe Bono and Vittorio F. Braga and Amanda Karakas and Maria Lugaro and Simon W. Campbell and Michele Fabrizio and Giuliana Fiorentino and Ian U. Roederer and Nicholas Storm and Maria Tantalo and Juliana Crestani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.15723},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in A&A. 16 pages, 11 figures. Abstract shortened