Related papers: How many nucleosynthesis processes exist at low me…
Several stars at the low-metallicity extreme of the Galactic halo show large spreads of [Pb/hs]. Theoretically, a s-process pattern should be obtained from an AGB star with fixed metallicity and initial mass. For the third dredge-up and the…
The chemical evolution of the Universe is governed by the chemical yields from stars, which in turn is determined primarily by the initial stellar mass. Even stars as low as 0.9Msun can, at low metallicity, contribute to the chemical…
Big Bang nucleosynthesis produces only light elements and the very first generation stars are thus formed from metal-free clouds. They start the production of heavy elements during their life, and enrich the interstellar medium through…
A long-standing scientific puzzle has been to explain the origin of the heaviest elements in the Universe and, more particularly, the production of the elements heavier than iron up to uranium. The rapid neutron capture process (or…
The $s$-process in massive stars produces the weak component of the $s$-process (nuclei up to $A \sim 90$), in amounts that match solar abundances. For heavier isotopes, such as barium, production through neutron capture is significantly…
Recently an increasing number of studies were devoted to measure the abundances of neutron-capture elements heavier than iron in stars belonging to Galactic Open Clusters (OCs). OCs span a sizeable range in metallicity -0.6<[Fe/H]<+0.4),…
We present a detailed abundance analysis of 8 stars selected as extremely metal poor candidates from the Hamburg/ESO Survey (HES). For comparison, we have also analysed 3 extremely metal-poor candidates from the HK survey, and 3 additional…
An overview of the sources for heavy elements in the early Galaxy is given. It is shown that observations of abundances in metal-poor stars can be used along with a basic understanding of stellar models to guide the search for the source of…
We report on an investigation into stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis in the low and extremely low metallicity regime, including models of stars with a pure Big Bang composition (i.e. Z=0). The metallicity range of the extremely metal…
We follow the chemical evolution of the Galaxy for elements from Ba to Eu, using an evolutionary model suitable to reproduce a large set of Galactic (local and non local) and extragalactic constraints. Input stellar yields for neutron-rich…
Recent spectroscopic measurements in open clusters younger than the Sun, with [Fe/H]>=0, showed that the abundances of neutron-rich elements have continued to increase in the Galaxy after the formation of the Sun, roughly maintaining a…
New measurements of neutron-capture elements are presented for two very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] ~ -3). One (LP 625-44) has an s-process signature believed to be due to mass transfer from a now-extinct metal-poor AGB companion, and the…
The rapid neutron-capture process or r-process is thought to produce the majority of the heavy elements (Z > 30) in extremely metal-poor stars. The same process is also responsible for a significant fraction of the heavy elements in the…
Recent work has found that the metal-poor star HD 94028 shows interesting abundance features. The s-process material (e.g., Ba, La, Ce, and Pb) and r-process material (e.g., Eu, Os, Pt) are mildly overabundant while the element C is not…
Observed abundances of Z ~ 40 elements in metal-poor stars vary from star to star, indicating that the rapid and slow neutron capture processes may not contribute alone to the synthesis of elements beyond iron. The weak r-process was…
New abundances for neutron-capture (n-capture) elements in a large sample of metal-poor giants from the Bond survey are presented. The spectra were acquired with the KPNO 4-m echelle and coude feed spectrographs, and have been analyzed…
The physical processes driving chemical evolution in the Milky Way can be probed using the distribution of abundances in low-mass FGK type stars in space phase at different times. During their final stages of evolution stars experience…
Metal-poor stars hold the key to our understanding of the origin of the elements and the chemical evolution of the Universe. This chapter describes the process of discovery of these rare stars, the manner in which their surface abundances…
Studying a range of old metal-poor stars provides information over cosmological timescales of our Galaxy. Such studies are indicative of the pristine gases and evolution of the Milky Way. Deriving stellar parameters and abundances from…
A VLT/MUSE population synthesis study of metallicities in the nuclear star-forming rings of four disk galaxies (NGC 613, NGC 1097, NGC 3351, NGC 7552) is presented. Disentangling the spectral contributions of young and old stellar…