Related papers: An inhomogeneous model for the Galactic halo: a po…
The abundance of nitrogen in the interstellar medium is a powerful probe of star for- mation processes over cosmological timescales. Since nitrogen can be produced both in massive and intermediate-mass stars with metallicity-dependent…
Fully cosmological, high resolution N-Body + SPH simulations are used to investigate the chemical abundance trends of stars in simulated stellar halos as a function of their origin. These simulations employ a physically motivated supernova…
Despite their shared origin, members of globular clusters display star-to-star variations in composition. The observed pattern of element abundances is unique to these stellar environments, and cannot be fully explained by any proposed…
We review recent observational studies of heavy element abundances in low metallicity stars and explore some implications of these results for nucleosynthesis and early Galactic chemical evolution.
Recent chemical abundance measurements of damped Ly-alpha absorbers (DLAs) revealed an intrinsic scatter in their metallicity of ~0.5 dex out to z~5. In order to explore the origin of this scatter, we build a semi-analytic model which…
The origin of r-process elements remains unidentified and still puzzles us. The recent discovery of evidence for the ejection of r-process elements from a short-duration gamma-ray burst singled out neutron star mergers (NSMs) as their…
We review general characteristics of massive stars, present the main observable constraints that stellar models should reproduce. We discuss the impact of massive star nucleosynthesis on the early phases of the chemical evolution of the…
We present a detailed chemical abundance and kinematic analysis of six extremely metal-poor ($-4.2 \leq$ [Fe/H] $\leq-$2.9) halo stars with very low neutron-capture abundances ([Sr/H] and [Ba/H]) based on high-resolution Magellan/MIKE…
We present the first detailed and homogeneous analysis of the s-element content in Galactic carbon stars of N-type. Abundances of Sr,Y, Zr (low-mass s-elements, or ls) and of Ba, La, Nd, Sm and Ce (high-mass s-elements, hs) are derived…
We present a simple toy model to understand what sets the scatter in star formation and metallicity of galaxies at fixed mass. The scatter ultimately arises from the intrinsic scatter in the accretion rate, but may be substantially reduced…
The s-process in massive stars, producing nuclei up to $A\approx 90$, has a different behaviour at low metallicity if stellar rotation is significant. This enhanced s-process is distinct from the s-process in massive stars around solar…
The recently improved information on the stellar (n,gamma) cross sections of neutron-magic nuclei at N = 82, and in particular of 142Nd, turned out to represent a sensitive test for models of s-process nucleosynthesis. While these data were…
A few topics concerning the early chemical evolution of the Milky Way are critically discussed. In particular, it is argued that: 1) Observed abundance patterns of extremely metal poor stars (of Pop. II) do not constrain the mass range of…
We present an analytical and phenomenological model for metal enrichment in halos based on hierarchical structure formation. This model assumes that astration of normal stellar populations along with SNe II already occurs at very high…
Metallicity is one of the crucial factors that determine stellar evolution. To characterize the properties of stellar populations one needs to know the fraction of stars forming at different metallicities. Knowing how this fraction evolves…
It is argued that the abundances of r-process related elements in stars with -3<[Fe/H]<-1 can be explained by the contributions of three sources. The sources are: the first generations of very massive (>100 solar masses) stars that are…
We present the abundances of Li, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, Sr, Y, Zr, and Ba in a wide metallicity range ($-2.8 \le$ [Fe/H] $\le -1.5$). Using the differential technique allowed us to obtain an unprecedented low…
Barium stars show enhanced abundances of the slow neutron capture (s-process) heavy elements, and for this reason they are suitable objects for the study of s-process elements. The aim of this work is to quantify the contributions of the…
We propose that the abundance anomalies of proton-capture elements in globular clusters, such as the C-N, Na-O, Mg-Al and Na-F anti-correlations, were produced by super-massive stars with M ~ 10,000 Msun. Such stars could form in the…
The slow ($s$) and intermediate ($i$) neutron ($n$) capture processes occur both in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, and in massive stars. To study the build-up of the $s$- and $i$-products at low metallicity, we investigate the…