Radioactivities in Low- and Intermediate-Mass Stars

TL;DR

This paper reviews how radioactive nuclei produced in stars, especially AGB stars, can be detected via neutrinos, spectroscopy, and meteorite analysis, shedding light on stellar nucleosynthesis and the origin of radioactive elements in the solar system.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of radioactive nuclei production in low- and intermediate-mass stars, emphasizing the role of the s-process and implications for solar system material.

Findings

Radioactive nuclei like 26Al, 60Fe, 87Rb, and 99Tc are produced in AGB stars.

Detection methods include neutrino observations, spectroscopy, and meteorite analysis.

Production of radioactive nuclei in stars can explain their presence in the early solar system.

Abstract

Energy in stars is provided by nuclear reactions, which, in many cases, produce radioactive nuclei. When stable nuclei are irradiated by a flux of protons or neutrons, capture reactions push stable matter out of stability into the regime of unstable species. The ongoing production of radioactive nuclei in the deep interior of the Sun via proton-capture reactions is recorded by neutrinos emitted during radioactive decay and detected on Earth. Radioactive nuclei that have relatively long half lives may also be detected in stars via spectroscopic observations and in stardust recovered from primitive meteorites via laboratory analysis. The vast majority of these stardust grains originated from Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars. This is the final phase in the evolution of stars initially less massive than ~10 solar masses, during which nuclear energy is produced by alternate hydrogen and helium burning in shells above the core. The long-lived radioactive nucleus 26Al is produced in massive AGB stars (>4:5 solar masses), where the base of the convective envelope reaches high temperatures. Several other long-lived radioactive nuclei, including 60Fe, 87Rb, and 99Tc, are produced in AGB stars when matter is exposed to a significant neutron flux leading to the synthesis of elements heavier than iron. Here, neutron captures occur on a timescale that is typically slower than beta-decay timescales, resulting slow neutron captures (the s-process). However, when radioactive nuclei with half lives greater than a few days are produced they may either decay or capture a neutron, thus branching up the path of neutron captures and defining the final s-process abundance distribution. This nucleosynthesis in AGB stars could produce some long-living radioactive nuclei in relative abundances that resemble those observed in the early solar system.