Bibcode
Pérez-Mesa, V.; García-Hernández, D. A.; Zamora, O.; Plez, B.; Manchado, A.; Karakas, A. I.; Lugaro, M.
Bibliographical reference
Highlights on Spanish Astrophysics IX, Proceedings of the XII Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society held on July 18-22, 2016, in Bilbao, Spain, ISBN 978-84-606-8760-3. S. Arribas, A. Alonso-Herrero, F. Figueras, C. Hernández-Monteagudo, A. Sánchez-Lavega, S. Pérez-Hoyos (eds.), 2017 , p. 429-434
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3
2017
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0
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0
Description
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) is formed by low- and
intermediate-mass stars (0.8 M_{⊙} < M < 8 M_{⊙}) in their
last nuclear-burning phase, when they develop thermal pulses (TP) and
suffer extreme mass loss. AGB stars are the main contributor to the
enrichment of the interstellar medium (ISM) and thus to the chemical
evolution of galaxies. In particular, the more massive AGB stars (M >
4 M_{⊙}) are expected to produce light (e.g., Li, N) and heavy
neutron-rich s-process elements (such as Rb, Zr, Ba, Y, etc.), which are
not formed in lower mass AGB stars and Supernova explosions. Classical
chemical analyses using hydrostatic atmospheres revealed strong Rb
overabundances and high [Rb/Zr] ratios in massive AGB stars of our
Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds (MC), confirming for the first time
that the ^{22}Ne neutron source dominates the production of s-process
elements in these stars. The extremely high Rb abundances and [Rb/Zr]
ratios observed in the most massive stars (specially in the
low-metallicity MC stars) uncovered a Rb problem; such extreme Rb and
[Rb/Zr] values are not predicted by the s-process AGB models, suggesting
fundamental problems in our present understanding of their atmospheres.
We present more realistic dynamical model atmospheres that consider a
gaseous circumstellar envelope with a radial wind and we re-derive the
Rb (and Zr) abundances in massive Galactic AGB stars. The new Rb
abundances and [Rb/Zr] ratios derived with these dynamical models
significantly resolve the problem of the mismatch between the
observations and the theoretical predictions of the more massive AGB
stars.