Complete nucleosynthesis calculations for low-mass stars from NuGrid

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed nucleosynthesis calculations for a 2 solar mass low-mass star, focusing on the formation of the 13C-pocket and s-process element production, contributing to understanding stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis.

Contribution

It provides the first high-resolution, post-processing stellar evolution simulations of a low-mass AGB star with detailed analysis of the 13C-pocket formation and s-process nucleosynthesis.

Findings

Analysis of 13C-pocket formation between TPs 17 and 18

Detailed s-process nucleosynthesis profiles for heavy isotopes

Insights into nucleosynthesis constraints from presolar grains

Abstract

Many nucleosynthesis and mixing processes of low-mass stars as they evolve from the Main Sequence to the thermal-pulse Asymptotic Giant Branch phase (TP-AGB) are well understood (although of course important physics components, e.g. rotation, magnetic fields, gravity wave mixing, remain poorly known). Nevertheless, in the last years presolar grain measurements with high resolution have presented new puzzling problems and strong constraints on nucleosynthesis processes in stars. The goal of the NuGrid collaboration is to present uniform yields for a large range of masses and metallicities, including low$-$mass stars and massive stars and their explosions. Here we present the first calculations of stellar evolution and high-resolution, post-processing simulations of an AGB star with an initial mass of 2 M_sun and solar-like metallicity (Z=0.01), based on the post-processing code PPN. In particular, we analyze the formation and evolution of the radiative 13C-pocket between the 17th TP and the 18th TP. The s-process nucleosynthesis profile of a sample of heavy isotopes is also discussed, before the next convective TP occurrence.