Related papers: Nucleosynthesis: Stellar and Solar Abundances and …
The production of about half of the heavy elements found in nature is assigned to a specific astrophysical nucleosynthesis process: the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). Although this idea has been postulated more than six decades…
Recent observations of heavy elements produced by rapid neutron capture (r-process) in the halo have shown a striking and unexpected behavior: within a single star, the relative abundances of r-process elements heavier than Eu are the same…
The chemical abundances of elements such as barium and the lanthanides are essential to understand the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in the early Universe as well as the contribution of different neutron capture processes (for example…
We propose an explanation for the considerable scatter of the abundances of neutron capture elements observed in low-metallicity stars in the solar vicinity, compared to the small star-to-star scatter observed for the alpha-elements. We…
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…
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…
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…
The properties of the relative abundances of rapid and slow neutron-capture elements are studied using a catalog containing spectroscopic abundance determinations for 14~elements produced in various nuclear-synthesis processes for 90~open…
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…
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…
The aim of this work is to determine abundances of neutron-capture elements for thin- and thick-disc F, G, and K stars in several sky fields near the north ecliptic pole and to compare the results with the Galactic chemical evolution…
The abundance patterns of metal-poor stars provide us a wealth of chemical information about various stages of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In particular, these stars allow us to study the formation and evolution of the elements…
The synthesis of nuclei in diverse cosmic scenarios is reviewed, with a summary of the basic concepts involved before a discussion of the current status in each case is made. We review the physics of the early universe, the proton to…
Planetary nebulae (PN) are an excellent laboratory to investigate the nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution of intermediate mass stars. In these objects accurate abundances can be obtained for several chemical elements that are…
Recent observations of r-process-enriched metal-poor star abundances reveal a non-uniform abundance pattern for elements $Z\leq47$. Based on non-correlation trends between elemental abundances as a function of Eu-richness in a large sample…
Stars are fossils that retain the history of their host galaxies. Carbon and heavier elements are created inside stars and are ejected when they die. From the spatial distribution of elements in galaxies, it is therefore possible to…
I discuss the recent progress in our understanding of nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture, the r-process, based on meteoritic data for the early solar system and observations of stars at low metallicities. At present, all data require…
The r-process, or the rapid neutron-capture process, of stellar nucleosynthesis is called for to explain the production of the stable (and some long-lived radioactive) neutron-rich nuclides heavier than iron that are observed in stars of…
Abundance patterns of the elements C, N, and O are sensitive probes of stellar nucleosynthesis processes and, in addition, O abundances are an important input for stellar age determinations. Understanding the nature of the observed…
Methods to determine abundances of the elements in the atmospheres of F, G, and K stars with precisions of 0.01-0.03 dex are reviewed. Such high-precision stellar abundances have led to the discovery of unexpected phenomena and relations…