Related papers: Evolution and nucleosynthesis in low mass Asymptot…
The earliest stars to form in the Universe were the first sources of light, heat and metals after the Big Bang. The products of their evolution will have had a profound impact on subsequent generations of stars. Recent studies of primordial…
Abiotic emergence of ordered information stored in the form of RNA is an important unresolved problem concerning the origin of life. A polymer longer than 40--100 nucleotides is necessary to expect a self-replicating activity, but the…
Primordial, or Pop III, supernovae (SNe) were the first, great nucleosynthetic engines in the Universe, forging the heavy elements required for the later formation of planets, and life. Past studies suggest that the rise of planet formation…
Earth's water, intrinsic oxidation state, and metal core density are fundamental chemical features of our planet. Studies of exoplanets provide a useful context for elucidating the source of these chemical traits. Planet formation and…
We describe our first attempt at modelling nucleosynthesis in massive AGB stars which have undergone core carbon burning, the super-AGB stars. We fit a synthetic model to detailed stellar evolution models in the mass range 9<=M/Msun<=11.5…
The Sun operates like a giant plasma diffuser that sorts lighter isotopes and elements to the solar surface. Measurements indicate that the interior of the Sun consists mostly of the same seven, even-numbered elements as ordinary…
We explore the general astrobiological significance of F-type main-sequence stars with masses between 1.2 and 1.5 Msun. Special consideration is given to stellar evolutionary aspects due to nuclear main-sequence evolution. DNA is taken as a…
Due to their different nucleosynthetic origin, a stellar population produces oxygen (O) and iron (Fe) on different timescales and their relative abundance can deviate strongly from solar. Galaxy formation models should treat these elements…
Knowledge of the composition of material that will form planets is crucial to understand planetary diversity and the occurrence of potentially habitable planets. Ultimately, it is the chemistry in circumstellar disks that determines the…
The outflows of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are rich astrochemical laboratories, hosting different chemical regimes: from non-equilibrium chemistry close to the star, to dust formation further out, and finally photochemistry in the…
Full evolutionary models have been built to follow the phases of asymptotic giant branch evolution with mass loss for metal mass fractions from Z=0.0002 to Z=0.004. For the first time, we find that temperatures close to or even larger than…
We discuss the fine-tunings of nuclear reactions in the Big Bang and in stars and draw some conclusions on the emergence of the light elements and the life-relevant elements carbon and oxygen. We also stress how to improve these…
Certain carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars likely obtained their composition via pollution from some of the earliest generations of asymptotic giant branch stars and as such provide important clues to early Universe nucleosynthesis. Recently,…
The existence of neutron star mergers has been supported since the discovery of the binary pulsar and the observation of its orbital energy loss, consistent with General Relativity. They are considered nucleosynthesis sites of the rapid…
We present models for the evolution of the elemental abundances in the gas and dust phases of the interstellar medium (ISM) of our Galaxy by generalizing standard models for its dynamical and chemical evolution. In these models, the stellar…
The Iron Sun formed on the collapsed core of a supernova and now acts as a magnetic plasma diffuser, as did the precursor star, separating ions by mass. This process covers the solar surface with lightweight elements and with lighter…
Only massive stars contribute to the chemical evolution of the juvenile universe corresponding to [Fe/H]<-1.5. If Type II supernovae (SNe II) are the only relevant sources, then the abundances in the interstellar medium of the juvenile…
This review provides the necessary background from astrophysics, nuclear, and particle physics to understand the cosmic origin of the chemical elements. It reflects the year 2009 state of the art in this extremely quickly developing…
We summarise the main properties of Asymptotic Giant Branch stars, including their structure, evolution and nucleosynthesis. The main physical mechanisms are outlined, as are the uncertainties. In keeping with the multi-disciplinary nature…
Due to their production sites, as well as to how they are processed and destroyed in stars, the light elements are excellent tools to investigate a number of crucial issues in modern astrophysics: from stellar structure and non-standard…