Distribution of Europium in The Milky Way Disk; Its Connection to Planetary Habitability and The Source of The R-Process

TL;DR

This study examines europium distribution in the Milky Way disk to understand its implications for planetary habitability and the origins of r-process elements, revealing a small dispersion and metallicity-dependent patterns.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of europium abundance dispersion in the galactic disk and its connection to planetary magnetic dynamo sustainability.

Findings

Small intrinsic scatter of 0.025 dex in [Eu/H] within the disk.

Eu inventories support a metallicity 'Goldilocks zone' for planetary dynamos.

Evidence suggests decoupled production of Eu and alpha elements, indicating different r-process sources.

Abstract

The energy provided in the radioactive decay of thorium (Th) and uranium (U) isotopes, embedded in planetary mantles, sustains geodynamics important for surface habitability such as the generation of a planetary magnetic dynamo. In order to better understand the thermal evolution of nearby exoplanets, stellar photospheric abundances can be used to infer the material composition of orbiting planets. Here we constrain the intrinsic dispersion of the r-process element europium (Eu) (measured in relative abundance [Eu/H]) as a proxy for Th and U in local F, G, and K type dwarf stars. Adopting stellar-chemical data from two high quality spectroscopic surveys, we have determined a small intrinsic scatter of 0.025 dex in [Eu/H] within the disk. We further investigate the stellar anti-correlation in [Eu/$\alpha$] vs [$\alpha$/H] at late metallicities to probe in what regimes planetary radiogenic heating may lead to periods of extended dynamo collapse. We find that only near-solar metallicity stars in the disk have Eu inventories supportive of a persistent dynamo in attendant planets, supporting the notion of a ``metallicity Goldilocks zone'' in the galactic disk. The observed anti-correlation further provides novel evidence regarding the nature of r-processes injection by substantiating $\alpha$ element production is decoupled from Eu injection. This suggests either a metallicity-dependent r-process in massive core-collapse supernovae, or that neutron-star merger events dominate r-process production in the recent universe.