Nucleosynthesis of Binary-stripped Stars

Abstract

The cosmic origin of the elements, the fundamental chemical building blocks of the universe, is still uncertain. Binary interactions play a key role in the evolution of many massive stars, yet their impact on chemical yields is poorly understood. Using the MESA stellar evolution code, we predict the chemical yields ejected in wind mass loss and the supernovae of single and binary-stripped stars. We do this with a large 162-isotope nuclear network at solar metallicity. We find that binary-stripped stars are more effective producers of the elements than single stars, due to their increased mass loss and an increased chance to eject their envelopes during a supernova. This increased production by binaries varies across the periodic table, with F and K being more significantly produced by binary-stripped stars than single stars. We find that the ^12 C/ ^13 C could be used as an indicator of the conservativeness of mass transfer, as ^13 C is preferentially ejected during mass transfer while ^12 C is preferentially ejected during wind mass loss. We identify a number of gamma-ray-emitting radioactive isotopes that may be used to help constrain progenitor and explosion models of core-collapse supernovae with next-generation gamma-ray detectors. For single stars we find that ^44 V and ^52 Mn are strong probes of the explosion model, while for binary-stripped stars it is ^48 Cr. Our findings highlight that binary-stripped stars are not equivalent to two single stars and that detailed stellar modeling is needed to predict their final nucleosynthetic yields.

Keywords

• Binary stars
• Nucleosynthesis
• Explosive nucleosynthesis
• Core-collapse supernovae
• Massive stars