Al-26 and the formation of the Solar System from a molecular cloud contaminated by Wolf-Rayet winds

TL;DR

This paper argues that the early Solar System's Al-26 was inherited from the parent molecular cloud contaminated by Wolf-Rayet star winds, rather than from supernova ejecta, supported by isotopic evidence and modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a model for Al-26 origin in the Solar System via Wolf-Rayet wind contamination of the molecular cloud, challenging previous supernova-based hypotheses.

Findings

Al-26 presence unlikely from direct supernova injection (<2% probability).

Uniform Al-26 distribution in CAIs supports inheritance from molecular cloud.

Galactic distribution modeling shows a ~6% chance of reaching Solar System levels of Al-26.

Abstract

In agreement with previous work, we show that the presence of the short-lived radionuclide Al-26 in the early Solar System was unlikely (<2% a priori probability) to be the result of direct introduction of supernova ejecta into the gaseous disk during the Class II stage of protosolar evolution. We also show that any Bondi-Hoyle accretion of contaminated residual gas from the natal star cluster made a negligible contribution to the primordial Al-26 inventory of the Solar System. These results are consistent with the absence of the oxygen isotopic signature expected with any late introduction of supernova ejecta into the protoplanetary disk. Instead, the presence of Al-26 in the oldest Solar System solids (calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions or CAIs) and its apparent uniform distribution with the inferred canonical Al-26/Al-27 ratio of (4.5-5)E-5 support the inheritance of Al-26 from the parent giant molecular cloud. We propose that this radionuclide originated in a prior generation of massive stars that formed in the same host molecular cloud as the Sun and contaminated that cloud by Wolf-Rayet winds. We calculated the Galactic distribution of Al-26/Al-27 ratios that arise from such contamination using the established embedded cluster mass and stellar initial mass functions, published nucleosynthetic yields from the winds of massive stars, and by assuming rapid and uniform mixing into the cloud. Although our model predicts that the majority of stellar systems contain no Al-26 from massive stars, and that the a priori probability that the Al-26/Al-27 ratio will reach or exceed the canonical Solar System value is only ~6%, the maximum in the distribution of non-zero values is close to the canonical ratio.