The origin and evolution of r- and s-process elements in the Milky Way stellar disk

Abstract

Knowledge of abundance ratios as functions of metallicity can lead to insights on the origin and evolution of our Galaxy and its stellar populations. We aim to trace the chemical evolution of the neutron-capture elements Sr, Zr, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, and Eu in the Milky Way stellar disk to constrain the formation sites of these elements as well as to probe the evolution of the Galactic thin and thick disks. Using spectra of high resolution and high signal-to-noise we determine Sr, Zr, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, and Eu abundances for a sample of 593 F and G dwarf stars in the Solar neighbourhood. We present abundance results for Sr, Zr, La, Ce, Nd, Sm and Eu. We find that Nd, Sm, and Eu show trends similar to what is observed for the alpha-elements when compared to [Fe/H]. [Sr/Fe] and [Zr/Fe] show decreasing abundance ratios for increasing metallicity, reaching sub-solar values at super-solar metallicities. [La/Fe] and [Ce/Fe] do not show any clear trend with metallicity. The rapid neutron-capture process is active early in the Galaxy, mainly in type II supernovae from stars in the mass range 8-10 M_sun. Eu is almost completely produced by r-process but Nd and Sm show similar trends to Eu even if their s-process component is higher. Sr and Zr show significant enrichment at low metallicity that requires extra r-process production, that probably is different from the classical r-process. Finally, La and Ce are mainly produced via s-process from AGB stars in mass range 2-4 M_sun. The trend of [X/Fe] with age found could be explained by considering that the decrease in [X/Fe] for the thick disk stars can be due to the decrease of type II supernovae with time meaning a reduced enrichment of r-process elements in the interstellar medium. In the thin disk the trends are flatter that probably is due to that the main production from s-process is balanced by Fe production from type Ia supernovae.

25 pages, published in A&A

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