Hot bottom burning and s-process nucleosynthesis in massive AGB stars at the beginning of the thermally-pulsing phase

Autor(en)
A. Garcia Hernandez, O. Zamora, A. Yagüe, Stefan Uttenthaler, A. I. Karakas
Abstrakt

We report the first spectroscopic identification of massive Galactic asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars at the beginning of the thermal pulse (TP) phase. These stars are the most Li-rich massive AGBs found to date, super Li-rich AGBs with log ɛ (Li) ~ 3-4. The high Li overabundances are accompanied by weak or no s-process element (i.e. Rb and Zr) enhancements. A comparison of our observations with the most recent hot bottom burning (HBB) and s-process nucleosynthesis models confirms that HBB is strongly activated during the first TPs but the 22Ne neutron source needs many more TP and third dredge-up episodes to produce enough Rb at the stellar surface. We also show that the short-lived element Tc, usually used as an indicator of AGB genuineness, is not detected in massive AGBs, which is in agreement with the theoretical predictions when the 22Ne neutron source dominates the s-process nucleosynthesis.

Appendix A is available in electronic form at www.aanda.org

Organisation(en)
Institut für Astrophysik
Externe Organisation(en)
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Universidad de La Laguna, INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Australian National University
Journal
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Band
555
Anzahl der Seiten
6
ISSN
0004-6361
Publikationsdatum
07-2013
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
103003 Astronomie, 103004 Astrophysik
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/c9ae7f9d-7287-45b9-80f9-45b85c76ac6d