Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

THE WEAK s-PROCESS IN MASSIVE STARS AND ITS DEPENDENCE ON THE NEUTRON CAPTURE CROSS SECTIONS

FREE ISSUE

M. Pignatari1,2,3, R. Gallino4, M. Heil5, M. Wiescher2, F. Käppeler6, F. Herwig1 and S. Bisterzo4

Show affiliations


The slow neutron capture process in massive stars (weak s process) produces most of the s-process isotopes between iron and strontium. Neutrons are provided by the 22Ne(α,n)25Mg reaction, which is activated at the end of the convective He-burning core and in the subsequent convective C-burning shell. The s-process-rich material in the supernova ejecta carries the signature of these two phases. In the past years, new measurements of neutron capture cross sections of isotopes beyond iron significantly changed the predicted weak s-process distribution. The reason is that the variation of the Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACS) is propagated to heavier isotopes along the s path. In the light of these results, we present updated nucleosynthesis calculations for a 25 M star of Population I (solar metallicity) in convective He-burning core and convective C-burning shell conditions. In comparison with previous simulations based on the Bao et al. compilation, the new measurement of neutron capture cross sections leads to an increase of s-process yields from nickel up to selenium. The variation of the cross section of one isotope along the s-process path is propagated to heavier isotopes, where the propagation efficiency is higher for low cross sections. New 74Ge, 75As, and 78Se MACS result in a higher production of germanium, arsenic, and selenium, thereby reducing the s-process yields of heavier elements by propagation. Results are reported for the He core and for the C shell. In shell C-burning, the s-process nucleosynthesis is more uncertain than in the He core, due to higher MACS uncertainties at higher temperatures. We also analyze the impact of using the new lower solar abundances for CNO isotopes on the s-process predictions, where CNO is the source of 22Ne, and we show that beyond Zn this is affecting the s-process yields more than nuclear or stellar model uncertainties considered in this paper. In particular, using the new updated initial composition, we obtain a high s-process production (overproduction higher than 16O, ~100) for Cu, Ga, Ge, and As. Using the older abundances by Anders & Grevesse, also Se, Br, Kr, and Rb are efficiently produced. Our results have important implications in explaining the origin of copper in the solar abundance distribution, pointing to a prevailing contribution from the weak s-process in agreement with spectroscopic observations and Galactic chemical evolution calculations. Because of the improvement due to the new MACS for nickel and copper isotopes, the nucleosynthesis of copper is less affected by nuclear uncertainties compared to heavier s-process elements. An experimental determination of the 63Ni MACS is required for a further improvement of the abundance prediction of copper. The available spectroscopic observations of germanium and gallium in stars are also discussed, where most of the cosmic abundances of these elements derives from the s-process in massive stars.


Keywords

nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, abundances; stars: abundances


Dates

Issue 2 (2010 February 20)

Received 2009 December 5, accepted for publication 2010 January 7

Published 2010 February 1



  1. The Weak s-Process in Massive Stars and its Dependence on the Neutron Capture Cross Sections

    M. Pignatari et al. 2010 ApJ 710 1557

  2. A Search for Unrecognized Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor Stars in the Galaxy

    Vinicius M. Placco et al. 2010 The Astronomical Journal 139 1051

  3. Bounds on general entropy measures

    Dominic W Berry and Barry C Sanders 2003 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 36 12255

  4. A Search for Field Horizontal-Branch Stars Near the South Galactic Pole

    R. Ortiz et al. 2010 The Astronomical Journal 139 1031

  5. Equivalence between two-mode spin squeezed states and pure entangled states with equal spin

    Dominic W Berry and Barry C Sanders 2005 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 38 L205

  6. Directed flow of neutral strange particles at AGS

    Bin Zhang et al 2000 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 26 1665

  7. Trapped atoms in cavity QED: coupling quantized light and matter

    R Miller et al 2005 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 38 S551

  8. Generalization of the Darboux transformation and generalized harmonic oscillators

    Dae-Yup Song and John R Klauder 2003 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 36 8673

  9. Non-linear evanescent-field imaging

    Martin Oheim and Florian Schapper 2005 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 38 R185

  10. Light Curve Templates and Galactic Distribution of RR Lyrae Stars from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82

    Branimir Sesar et al. 2010 ApJ 708 717

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.