Related papers: How many nucleosynthesis processes exist at low me…

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.

The heavy elements formed by neutron capture processes have an interesting history from which we can extract useful clues to and constraints upon both the characteristics of the processes themselves and the star formation and…

There have been a number of important recent developments in theoretical and observational studies of nucleosynthesis, especially regarding nucleosynthetic sources at low metallicities. Those selected for discussion here include the origin…

Observations of metal-poor stars indicate that at least two different nucleosynthesis sites contribute to the production of r-process elements. One site is responsible for the production of light r-process elements Z<~50 while the other…

Nucleosynthesis in the s process takes place in the He burning layers of low mass AGB stars and during the He and C burning phases of massive stars. The s process contributes about half of the element abundances between Cu and Bi in solar…

We examine the Pb and Th abundances in 27 metal-poor stars (-3.1 < [Fe/H] < -1.4) whose very heavy metal (Z > 56) enrichment was produced only by the rapid (r-) nucleosynthesis process. New abundances are derived from HST/STIS, Keck/HIRES,…

The chemical abundances of metal-poor stars are an excellent test bed by which to set new constraints on models of neutron-capture processes at low metallicity. Some r-process-rich (hereafter r-rich) metal-poor stars, such as HD221170, show…

Moderately r-process-enriched stars (r-I) are at least four times as common as those that are greatly enriched in r-process elements (r-II), and the abundances in their atmospheres are important tools for obtaining a better understanding of…

The chemical abundances of metal-poor stars provide a great deal of information regarding the individual nucleosynthetic processes that created the observed elements and the overall process of chemical enrichment of the galaxy since the…

Low-metallicity stars preserve the signatures of the first stellar nucleosynthesis events in the Galaxy, as their surface abundances reflect the composition of the interstellar medium from which they were born. Aside from primordial Big…

To better characterize the abundance patterns produced by the r-process, we have derived new abundances or upper limits for the heavy elements zinc (Zn), yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La), europium (Eu), and lead (Pb). Our sample of 161…

This work describes a study of elemental abundances for 30 metal-poor stars whose chemical abundances provide excellent information for setting constraints on models of neutron-capture processes. Based on the abundances of main r- and weak…

The astrophysical origin of the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process), which produces about half of the elements heavier than iron, remains uncertain. The oldest, most metal-poor stars preserve the chemical signatures of early…

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…

(Abridged) The stellar sites and the complete mechanism of r-process nucleosynthesis are still unresolved issues. From consideration of the observed abundances in metal-poor stars, it is proposed that the production of the heavy r-process…

Neutron-star mergers were recently confirmed as sites of rapid-neutron-capture (r-process) nucleosynthesis. However, in Galactic chemical evolution models, neutron-star mergers alone cannot reproduce the observed element abundance patterns…

We have made a parametric study of s-process nucleosynthesis in the metal poor ([Fe/H]=-2.7) stars LP625-44 and LP706-7. We find that a high neutron exposure and a small overlap factor are necessary to fit the abundance pattern observed in…

Ground- and space-based observations of stellar heavy element abundances are providing a clearer picture of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. A large number of (r)apid and (s)low neutron capture process elements, including the first…

The dispersion and mean trends of r-process abundances in metal-poor stars are discussed based on a model of diverse supernova sources for the r-process. This model is unique in that its key parameters are inferred from solar system data…

The chemical abundances of the very metal-poor double-enhanced stars are excellent information for setting new constraints on models of neutron-capture processes at low metallicity. These stars are known as s+r stars, since they show…