24–29 Jun 2018
LNGS
Europe/Rome timezone

Inhomogeneous Galactic Chemical Evolution of r-process Elements

26 Jun 2018, 18:45
15m
"E. Fermi" conference room (LNGS)

"E. Fermi" conference room

LNGS

Via G. Acitelli, 22 - 67100 Assergi (Italy)
Talk, Grant Assigned Galactic chemical evolution

Speaker

Benjamin Wehmeyer (North Carolina State University)

Description

The origin of the heaviest elements is still a matter of debate. For the rapid neutron capture process (r -process), multiple sites have been proposed, e.g., neutron star mergers and (sub-classes) of supernovae. R-process elements have been measured in a large fraction of metal-poor stars. Galactic archaeology studies show that the r-process abundances among these stars vary by over 2 orders of magnitude. On the other hand,abundances in stars with solar-like metallicity do not differ greatly. This leads to two major open questions: 1. What is the reason for such a huge abundance scatter of r -process elements in the early galaxy? 2. While the large scatter at low metallicities might point to a rare production site, why is there barely any scatter at solar metallicities? We use the high resolution ( 20 parsec/cell) inhomogeneous chemical evolution tool ”ICE” to study the role of the contributing source(s) of r-process elements. In this talk, I will discuss chemical evolution scenarios that provide an explanation for the observed abundance features of r-process elements in our Galaxy.

Primary author

Benjamin Wehmeyer (North Carolina State University)

Co-authors

Carla Frohlich (North Carolina State University) F. K. Thielemann (Universität Basel) M. Pignatari (University of Hull)

Presentation materials