Probing Massive Star Nucleosynthesis with Data on Metal-Poor Stars and the Solar System

TL;DR

This paper investigates early massive star nucleosynthesis through metal-poor star data and solar system radionuclides, proposing new neutron-capture mechanisms and analyzing supernova triggers for solar system formation.

Contribution

It introduces novel neutron-capture processes in early massive stars and constrains supernova triggers for the solar system using meteoritic data.

Findings

Evidence for alternative neutron-capture mechanisms in early massive stars.

A low-mass supernova likely triggered solar system formation.

Nucleosynthesis models explain observed short-lived radionuclides in the ESS.

Abstract

Metal-poor stars were formed during the early epochs when only massive stars had time to evolve and contribute to the chemical enrichment. Low-mass metal-poor stars survive until the present and provide fossil records of the nucleosynthesis of early massive stars. On the other hand, short-lived radionuclides (SLRs) in the early solar system (ESS) reflect the nucleosynthesis of sources that occurred close to the proto-solar cloud in both space and time. Both the ubiquity of Sr and Ba and the diversity of heavy-element abundance patterns observed in single metal-poor stars suggest that some neutron-capture mechanisms other than the r-process might have operated in early massive stars. Three such mechanisms are discussed: the weak s-process in non-rotating models with initial carbon enhancement, a new s-process induced by rapid rotation in models with normal initial composition, and neutron-capture processes induced by proton ingestion in non-rotating models. In addition, meteoritic data are discussed to constrain the core-collapse supernova (CCSN) that might have triggered the formation of the solar system and provided some of the SLRs in the ESS. If there was a CCSN trigger, the data point to a low-mass CCSN as the most likely candidate. An 11.8 solar mass CCSN trigger is discussed. Its nucleosynthesis, the evolution of its remnant, and the interaction of the remnant with the proto-solar cloud appear to satisfy the meteoritic constraints and can account for the abundances of the SLRs 41Ca, 53Mn, and 60Fe in the ESS.