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Presolar silicon carbide grains of types Y and Z: their strontium and barium isotopic compositions and stellar origins

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Abstract

We report the Sr and Ba isotopic compositions of 18 presolar SiC grains of types Y (11) and Z (7), rare types commonly argued to have formed in lower-than-solar metallicity asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. We find that the Y and Z grains show higher 88Sr/87Sr and more variable 138Ba/136Ba ratios than mainstream (MS) grains. According to FRANEC Torino AGB models, the Si, Sr, and Ba isotopic compositions of our Y and Z grains can be consistently explained if the grains came from low-mass AGB stars with 0.15 Z⊙ ≤ Z < 1.00 Z⊙, in which the 13C neutron exposure for the slow neutron-capture process is greatly reduced with respect to that required by MS grains for a 1.0 Z⊙ AGB star. This scenario is in line with the previous finding based on Ti isotopes, but it fails to explain the indistinguishable Mo isotopic compositions of MS, Y, and Z grains.

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Data availability

This manuscript has no associated data or the data will not be deposited. [Authors’ comment: The data from this study are given in Table 1, and the literature data are from the presolar graindatabase which is available online.]

Notes

  1. FRUITY is based on FRANEC (Frascati Raphson-Newton Evolutionary Code) code [24] and stands for FRANEC Repository of Updated Isotopic Tables & Yields [25, 26]. The nonmagnetic FRUITY models are available online at http://fruity.oa-teramo.inaf.it/, while the magnetic FRUITY models are not available online yet.

  2. FUNS stands for FUll Network Stellar and is a more recent version of the original FRANEC code [24]. For a full description of the FUNS code, we refer the reader to [38].

  3. KADoNiS stands for Karlsruhe Astrophysical Database of Nucleosynthesis in Stars. Version 0.3 is available at https://www.kadonis.org/ and version 1.0 is available at https://exp-astro.de/kadonis1.0/.

  4. δ88Sr86 values in [67] were calculated using 86Sr as the denominator isotope and differs from δ88Sr87 values in this study. However, since 86Sr and 87Sr are both pure s-process isotopes and produced together along the same s-process path (see Sect. 4.1), δ88Sr86 and δ88Sr87 values are expected to show the same dependence on the initial stellar metallicity.

  5. In comparison, the 2 M⊙, 1.0 Z⊙ FRANEC Torino AGB model calculations in D1.5 to U1.3 cases, which provide good matches to the MS grain data in Fig. 5, predict that the AGB stellar nucleosynthesis falls along slope-0.24 line and slope-0.18 line respectively, in Fig. 6a. Thus, both sets of AGB models support our assumption that AGB nucelsoynthesis follows a trend with a slope of 0.24 in the parent AGB stars of MS grains.

  6. Intrinsic AGB stars are AGB stars that experience or have experienced s-process nucleosynthesis. Extrinsic s-process-enriched stars are stars that have been polluted by a companion AGB star but have not (yet) reached the AGB stage.

  7. ls refers to the abundance of elements at the first s-process peak (e.g., Sr), while hs refers to the abundance of elements at the second s-process peak (e.g., Ba).

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Acknowledgements

We dedicate this paper to the memory of Franz Käppeler, grand master of s-process nucleosynthesis and a dear friend to many of the authors. We would like to thank Franz for his lifelong dedication to pushing the limit of neutron capture cross section measurements, without which the scientific return of presolar grain isotope data would be greatly reduced. This work was supported by NASA through grants 80NSSC20K0387 to N.L., NNX10AI63G and NNX17AE28G to L.R.N., and 80NSSC17K0251 and 80NSSC21K0374 to A.M.D. D.V. acknowledges the financial support of the German-Israeli Foundation (GIF No. I-1500-303.7/2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Space Sciences and Physics Department, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Nan Liu

  2. McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Nan Liu

  3. Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC, 20015, USA

    Nan Liu, Larry R. Nittler & Conel M. O’ D. Alexander

  4. Department of the Geophysical Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Thomas Stephan & Andrew M. Davis

  5. Chicago Center for Cosmochemistry, Chicago, IL, USA

    Thomas Stephan & Andrew M. Davis

  6. INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico d’Abruzzo, 64100, Teramo, Italy

    Sergio Cristallo

  7. INFN-Sezione di Perugia, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    Sergio Cristallo

  8. Institute for Applied Physics, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Germany

    Diego Vescovi

  9. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Torino, 10125, Turin, Italy

    Roberto Gallino

  10. The Enrico Fermi Institute, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Andrew M. Davis

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  3. Sergio Cristallo
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  4. Diego Vescovi
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  5. Roberto Gallino
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nan Liu.

Additional information

Communicated by Nicolas Alamanos.

Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 7
figure 7

Plots of Sr-Mo and Ba-Mo isotopes comparing Y and Z grains from this study and MS grains from [11] (brown circles) and [20] (grey circles) with AGB models. The magnetic FRUITY AGB models are the same as those shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Asteroidal/terrestrial Mo and Ba contaminations dominate the Mo and Ba isotopic compositions of grains in yellow and red shaded areas, respectively, in panels (a) and (b)

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It was shown that multielement isotope data can be used to identify contaminated grains [56]. Since we obtained the isotope data of more than one heavy element (Sr, Mo, or Ba) for 15 of the 18 Y and Z grains from this study, we chose δ84Sr87, δ92Mo96, and δ135Ba136 for comparing MS, Y, and Z grains from this study and the literature [11, 23] with magnetic FRUITY AGB models in Fig. 7. The three isotope ratios are chosen because they are least affected by uncertainties in AGB model predictions for the s-process (see [56] for discussion in detail). Figure 7 reveals a good agreement of the magnetic FRUITY AGB models with all but one MS grain from [20]. In comparison, our Y and Z grains and MS grains from [11, 23], all of which were found on the same sample mounts and analyzed in the same CHILI session, generally lie to the right of the model predictions but agree with the models within 2σ errors. The difference between the MS grains from [20] and the MS/Y/Z grains from [11, 23] could point to varying degrees of Mo contamination, but a definitive conclusion is hampered by the large errors and model uncertainties. As pointed out by [23], the Y, Z, and MS grains from [11, 23] likely sampled some Mo contamination because these grains (0.5 − 2 μm in size) are smaller than the MS grains (1.5 − 3 μm) from [20] and are comparable to the laser beam (~ 1 μm) used for sputtering material in the CHILI instrument [52]. The three Mo-contaminated MS grains from [11] (within yellow shaded area in Fig. 7b) were already noted in that study based on their multielement isotope data.

Except for Z grain M3-692 whose Mo isotope data mainly reflect asteroidal/terrestrial Mo, the Mo isotopic signatures of all the other Y and Z grains are dominated by AGB s-process Mo isotopic signatures. We cannot accurately estimate the percentage of asteroidal/terrestrial Mo contamination for each of the grains due to the large errors of their δ135Ba136 values and potential modeling uncertainties. We identified one Ba-contaminated Y grain, M2-A2-G1140 (within red shaded area in Fig. 7b; excluded in Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5). Besides, although Y grain M3-G1207 cannot be explained by the magnetic FRUITY models during the C-rich phase, this grain overlaps with the models during the O-rich phase within 1σ errors in both panels of Fig. 7. Since it is highly unlikely that a meteoritic/terrestrial contaminant has Sr/Mo and Ba/Mo ratios that are similar to those of M3-G1207, the isotopic signature of the grain likely implies reduced s-process isotope enrichments (87Sr, 96Mo, 136Ba) in the envelope of its parent AGB star compared to the AGB model predictions.

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Liu, N., Stephan, T., Cristallo, S. et al. Presolar silicon carbide grains of types Y and Z: their strontium and barium isotopic compositions and stellar origins. Eur. Phys. J. A 58, 216 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-022-00838-z

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