Related papers: s-Process Nucleosynthesis in Carbon Stars
We discuss the synthesis of some short-lived isotopes and of 23Na in thermally pulsing AGB stars with initial mass of 2 Msun and two different metallicities (Z=1.5e-2, corresponding to the metal amount in the Sun, and Z=1e-4),…
Light and intermediate nuclei as well as s-process elements have been detected in presolar grains and in evolved red giants. The abundances of some of these nuclei cannot be accounted for by canonical stellar models and require…
AGB stars are the source for the main component of the $s$-process. Here we discuss both the properties which are reasonably well known and those which still suffer from substantial uncertainties. In the former case, we are fairly sure that…
Most heavy elements beyond the iron peak are synthesized via neutron capture processes. The nature of the astrophysical sites of neutron capture processes is still very unclear. In this work we explore the observational constraints of the…
Slow neutron captures at A$\gtrsim$ 85 are mainly guaranteed by the reaction 13C($\alpha$,n)16O in AGB stars, requiring proton injections from the envelope. These were so far assumed to involve a small mass ($\lesssim 10^{-3}$ M$_{\odot}$),…
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…
S stars are late-type giants that are transition objects between M-type stars and carbon stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). They are classified into two types: intrinsic or extrinsic, based on the presence or absence of technetium…
We report abundance estimates for neutron-capture elements, including lead (Pb), and nucleosynthesis models for their origin, in two carbon-rich, very metal-poor stars, LP625-44 and LP706-7. These stars are subgiants whose surface…
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…
S-type stars are late-type giants enhanced with s-process elements originating either from nucleosynthesis during the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) or from a pollution by a binary companion. The former are called intrinsic S stars, and the…
We explore modifications to the current scenario for the slow neutron capture process in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars to account for the Pb deficiency observed in post-AGB stars of low metallicity ([Fe/H] ~ -1.2) and low initial mass…
The primary nature of the $^{13}$C neutron source is very significant for the studies of the s-process nucleosynthesis. In this paper we present an attempt to fit the element abundances observed in 16 s-rich stars using parametric model of…
Roughly half of the heavy elements (atomic mass greater than that of iron) are believed to be synthesized in the late evolutionary stages of stars with masses between 0.8 and 8 solar masses. Deep inside the star, nuclei (mainly iron)…
We present stellar evolutionary tracks and nucleosynthetic predictions for a grid of stellar models of low- and intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars at $Z=0.001$ ([Fe/H]$=-1.2$). The models cover an initial mass range from…
CEMP-s stars are very metal-poor stars with enhanced abundances of carbon and s-process elements. They form a significant proportion of the very metal-poor stars in the Galactic halo and are mostly observed in binary systems. This suggests…
It is well known that thermally pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch stars with low mass play a relevant role in the chemical evolution. They have synthesized about 30% of the galactic carbon and provide an important contribution to the…
In the past years the observational evidence that s-process elements from Sr to Pb are produced by stars ascending the socalled Asymptotic Giant Branch (or AGB) could not be explained by self-consistent models, forcing researchers to…
This paper provides a detailed analysis of the main component of the slow neutron capture process (the s-process), which accounts for the solar abundances of half of the nuclei with 90 <~ A <~ 208. We examine the impact of the uncertainties…
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…
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…