Impact of Hypernova νp-process Nucleosynthesis on the Galactic Chemical Evolution of Mo and Ru

We calculate the Galactic Chemical Evolution of Mo and Ru by taking into account the contribution from ν p-process nucleosynthesis. We estimate yields of p-nuclei such as 92,94Mo and 96,98Ru through the ν p-process in various supernova progenitors based upon recent models. In particular, the ν p-process in energetic hypernovae produces a large amount of p-nuclei compared to the yield in ordinary core-collapse SNe. Because of this, the abundances of 92,94Mo and 96,98Ru in the Galaxy are significantly enhanced at [Fe/H] = 0 by the ν p-process. We find that the ν p-process in hypernovae is the main contributor to the elemental abundance of 92Mo at low metallicity [Fe/H] < −2. Our theoretical prediction of the elemental abundances in metal-poor stars becomes more consistent with observational data when the ν p-process in hypernovae is taken into account.

Interstellar Extinction and Elemental Abundances: Individual Sight Lines

While it is well recognized that both the Galactic interstellar extinction curves and the gas-phase abundances of dust-forming elements exhibit considerable variations from one sight line to another, as yet most of the dust extinction modeling efforts have been directed to the Galactic average extinction curve, which is obtained by averaging over many clouds of different gas and dust properties. Therefore, any details concerning the relationship between the dust properties and the interstellar environments are lost. Here we utilize the wealth of extinction and elemental abundance data obtained by space telescopes and explore the dust properties of a large number of individual sight lines. We model the observed extinction curve of each sight line and derive the abundances of the major dust-forming elements (i.e., C, O, Si, Mg, and Fe) required to be tied up in dust (i.e., dust depletion). We then confront the derived dust depletions with the observed gas-phase abundances of these elements and investigate the environmental effects on the dust properties and elemental depletions. It is found that for the majority of the sight lines the interstellar oxygen atoms are fully accommodated by gas and dust and therefore there does not appear to be a “missing oxygen” problem. For those sight lines with an extinction-to-hydrogen column density A V /N H ≳ 4.8 × 10−22 mag cm2 H−1 there are shortages of C, Si, Mg, and Fe elements for making dust to account for the observed extinction, even if the interstellar C/H, Si/H, Mg/H, and Fe/H abundances are assumed to be protosolar abundances augmented by Galactic chemical evolution.

Stellar Population and Elemental Abundance Gradients of Early-type Galaxies*

The evolution of galaxies is imprinted on their stellar populations. Several stellar population properties in massive early-type galaxies have been shown to correlate with intrinsic galaxy properties such as the galaxy’s central velocity dispersion, suggesting that stars formed in an initial collapse of gas (z ∼ 2). However, stellar populations change as a function of galaxy radius, and it is not clear how local gradients of individual galaxies are influenced by global galaxy properties and galaxy environment. In this paper, we study the stellar populations of eight early-type galaxies as a function of radius. We use optical spectroscopy (∼4000–8600 Å) and full spectral fitting to measure stellar population age, metallicity, slope of the initial mass function (IMF), and nine elemental abundances (O, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, C, N, Na, and Fe) out to 1 R e for each galaxy individually. We find a wide range of properties, with ages ranging from 3–13 Gyr. Some galaxies have a radially constant, Salpeter-like IMF, and other galaxies have a super-Salpeter IMF in the center, decreasing to a sub-Salpeter IMF at ∼0.5 R e . We find a global correlation of the central [Z/H] with the central IMF and the radial gradient of the IMF for the eight galaxies, but local correlations of the IMF slope with other stellar population parameters hold only for subsets of the galaxies in our sample. Some elemental abundances also correlate locally with each other within a galaxy, suggesting a common production channel. These local correlations appear only in subsets of our galaxies, indicating variations of the stellar content among different galaxies.

Possible Detection of X-Ray Emitting Circumstellar Material in the Synchrotron-dominated Supernova Remnant RX J1713.7−3946

We report on a discovery of an X-ray emitting circumstellar material (CSM) knot inside the synchrotron dominant supernova remnant RX J1713.7−3946. This knot was previously thought to be a Wolf–Rayet star (WR 85), but we realized that it is in fact ∼40″ away from WR 85, indicating no relation to WR 85. We performed high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy with the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS) on board XMM-Newton. The RGS spectrum clearly resolves a number of emission lines, such as N Lyα, O Lyα, Fe xviii, Ne x, Mg xi, and Si xiii. The spectrum can be well represented by an absorbed thermal-emission model with a temperature of k B T e = 0.65 ± 0.02 keV. The elemental abundances are obtained to be N / H = 3.5 ± 0.8 N / H ⊙ , O / H = 0.5 ± 0.1 O / H ⊙ , Ne / H = 0.9 ± 0.1 Ne / H ⊙ , Mg / H = 1.0 ± 0.1 Mg / H ⊙ , Si / H = 1.0 ± 0.2 Si / H ⊙ , and Fe / H = 1.3 ± 0.1 Fe / H ⊙ . The enhanced N abundance with others being about the solar values allows us to infer that this knot is CSM ejected when the progenitor star evolved into a red supergiant. The abundance ratio of N to O is obtained to be N / O = 6.8 − 2.1 + 2.5 N / O ⊙ . By comparing this to those in outer layers of red supergiant stars expected from stellar evolution simulations, we estimate the initial mass of the progenitor star to be 15 M ⊙ ≲ M ≲ 20 M ⊙.

Physical and Chemical Properties of Wolf–Rayet Planetary Nebulae

Wolf–Rayet ([WR]) and weak-emission-line (wels) central stars of planetary nebulae (PNs) have hydrogen-deficient atmospheres, whose origins are not well understood. In the present study, we have conducted plasma diagnostics and abundance analyses of 18 Galactic PNs surrounding [WR] and wels nuclei, using collisionally excited lines (CELs) and optical recombination lines (ORLs) measured with the Wide Field Spectrograph on the Australian National University 2.3 m telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory complemented with optical archival data. Our plasma diagnostics imply that the electron densities and temperatures derived from CELs are correlated with the intrinsic nebular Hβ surface brightness and excitation class, respectively. Self-consistent plasma diagnostics of heavy-element ORLs of N2+ and O2+ suggest that a small fraction of cool (≲7000 K), dense (∼104–105 cm−3) materials may be present in some objects, though with large uncertainties. Our abundance analyses indicate that the abundance discrepancy factors (ADFs ≡ ORLs/CELs) of O2+ are correlated with the dichotomies between forbidden-line and He i temperatures. Our results likely point to the presence of a tiny fraction of cool, oxygen-rich dense clumps within diffuse warm ionized nebulae. Moreover, our elemental abundances derived from CELs are mostly consistent with asymptotic giant branch models in the range of initial masses from 1.5 to 5 M ⊙. Further studies are necessary to understand better the origins of abundance discrepancies in PNs around [WR] and wels stars.

Detailed elemental abundances of binary stars: Searching for signatures of planet formation and atomic diffusion

Binary star systems are assumed to be co-natal and coeval, thus to have identical chemical composition. In this work we aim to test the hypothesis that there is a connection between observed element abundance patterns and the formation of planets using binary stars. Moreover, we also want to test how atomic diffusion might influence the observed abundance patterns. We conduct a strictly line-by-line differential chemical abundance analysis of 7 binary systems. Stellar atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances are obtained with extremely high precision (&lt; 3.5%) using the high quality spectra from VLT/UVES and Keck/HIRES. We find that 4 of 7 binary systems show subtle abundance differences (0.01 - 0.03 dex) without clear correlations with the condensation temperature, including two planet-hosting pairs. The other 3 binary systems exhibit similar degree of abundance differences correlating with the condensation temperature. We do not find any clear relation between the abundance differences and the occurrence of known planets in our systems. Instead, the overall abundance offsets observed in the binary systems (4 of 7) could be due to the effects of atomic diffusion. Although giant planet formation does not necessarily imprint chemical signatures onto the host star, the differences in the observed abundance trends with condensation temperature, on the other hand, are likely associated with diverse histories of planet formation (e.g., formation location). Furthermore, we find a weak correlation between abundance differences and binary separation, which may provide a new constraint on the formation of binary systems.