Investigation for the enrichment pattern of the element abundances in r+s star HE 0338-3945: a special r-II star?

TL;DR

This study investigates the unique neutron-capture element enrichment pattern in the metal-poor star HE 0338-3945, suggesting it is a special r-II star formed through binary pollution and nucleosynthesis processes.

Contribution

It introduces a parametric model explaining the star's abundance pattern as resulting from binary system pollution and compares it with other r-II stars, highlighting its unique characteristics.

Findings

The star's abundance pattern is best explained by a binary system polluted by r-process material.

The initial mass of the AGB companion is estimated to be about 2.5 solar masses.

HE 0338-3945 shares similar abundance patterns with the r-II star CS 22892-052.

Abstract

The very metal-poor star HE 0338-3945 shows a double-enhanced pattern of the neutron-capture elements. The study to this sample could make people gain a better understanding of s- and r-process nucleosynthesis at low metallicity. Using a parametric model,we find that the abundance pattern of the neutron-capture elements could be best explained by a binary system formed in a molecular cloud, which had been polluted by r-process material. The observed abundance pattern of C and N can be explained by an AGB model(Karakas & Lattanzio 2007), . Combing with the parameters obtained from Cui & Zhang (2006), we suggest that the initial mass of the AGB companion is most likely to be about 2.5Msun, which excludes the possibility of forming a type-1.5 supernova. By comparing with the observational abundance pattern of CS 22892-052, we find that the dominating production of O should accompany with the production of the heavy r-process elements of r+s stars. Similar to r-II stars, the heavy r-process elements are not produced in conjunction with all the light elements from Na to Fe group. The abundance pattern of the light and r-process elements for HE 0338-3945 is very close to the pattern of the r-II star CS 22892-052. So, we suggest that this star HE 0338-3945 should be a special r-II star.