Abstract
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 the heavy r-process nuclei (r-nuclei). Observations show that this source produces very little of the elements from C through Zn, including Fe. This strongly suggests that O?Ne?Mg core-collapse supernovae (SNe) from progenitors of ∼8?11 M? are the source for the heavy r-nuclei. It is shown that a two-component model based on the abundances of Fe (from Fe core-collapse SNe) and Eu (from O?Ne?Mg core-collapse SNe) gives very good quantitative predictions for the abundances of all the other elements in metal-poor stars.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 36-43 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- Galaxy: evolution
- Nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, abundances
- Stars: Population II
- Supernovae: general