The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)
Spectacular Nucleosynthesis from Early Massive Stars
- Alexander P. Ji,
- Sanjana Curtis,
- Nicholas Storm,
- Vedant Chandra,
- Kevin C. Schlaufman,
- Keivan G. Stassun,
- Alexander Heger,
- Marco Pignatari,
- Adrian M. Price-Whelan,
- Maria Bergemann,
- Guy S. Stringfellow,
- Carla Fröhlich,
- Henrique Reggiani,
- Erika M. Holmbeck,
- Jamie Tayar,
- Shivani P. Shah,
- Emily J. Griffith,
- Chervin F. P. Laporte,
- Andrew R. Casey,
- Keith Hawkins,
- Danny Horta,
- William Cerny,
- Pierre Thibodeaux,
- Sam A. Usman,
- João A. S. Amarante,
- Rachael L. Beaton,
- Phillip A. Cargile,
- Cristina Chiappini,
- Charlie Conroy,
- Jennifer A. Johnson,
- Juna A. Kollmeier,
- Haining Li,
- Sarah Loebman,
- Georges Meynet,
- Dmitry Bizyaev,
- Joel R. Brownstein,
- Pramod Gupta,
- Sean Morrison,
- Kaike Pan,
- Solange V. Ramirez,
- Hans-Walter Rix,
- José Sánchez-Gallego
Affiliations
- Alexander P. Ji
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago , 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics—Center for Evolution of the Elements (JINA) , East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
- Sanjana Curtis
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago , 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Astronomy, University of California , Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
- Nicholas Storm
- ORCiD
- Max Planck Institute for Astronomy , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Vedant Chandra
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Kevin C. Schlaufman
- ORCiD
- Johns Hopkins University William H. Miller III Department of Physics & Astronomy , 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Tuve Fellow, Carnegie Institution for Science Earth & Planets Laboratory , 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington, DC 20015, USA
- Keivan G. Stassun
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University , Nashville, TN 37235, USA
- Alexander Heger
- ORCiD
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics—Center for Evolution of the Elements (JINA) , East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University , Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia; Center of Excellence for Astrophysics in Three Dimensions (ASTRO-3D) , Stromlo, ACT 2611, Australia
- Marco Pignatari
- ORCiD
- Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences , Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH), Konkoly Thege Miklós út 15-17, H-1121 Budapest, Hungary; CSFK, MTA Centre of Excellence , Budapest, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 15-17, H-1121, Hungary; E. A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics, University of Hull , Hull HU6 7RX, UK
- Adrian M. Price-Whelan
- ORCiD
- Center for Computational Astrophysics , Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Maria Bergemann
- ORCiD
- Max Planck Institute for Astronomy , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Guy S. Stringfellow
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado , 389 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0389, USA
- Carla Fröhlich
- ORCiD
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics—Center for Evolution of the Elements (JINA) , East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; Department of Physics, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
- Henrique Reggiani
- ORCiD
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
- Erika M. Holmbeck
- ORCiD
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
- Jamie Tayar
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Florida , Bryant Space Science Center, Stadium Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- Shivani P. Shah
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Florida , Bryant Space Science Center, Stadium Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- Emily J. Griffith
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado , 389 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0389, USA
- Chervin F. P. Laporte
- ORCiD
- Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona , Martí i Franquès 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain; Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) , E-08034 Barcelona, Spain
- Andrew R. Casey
- ORCiD
- School of Physics & Astronomy, Monash University , Wellington Road, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia
- Keith Hawkins
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Danny Horta
- ORCiD
- Center for Computational Astrophysics , Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
- William Cerny
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Pierre Thibodeaux
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago , 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]
- Sam A. Usman
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago , 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA ; [email protected]
- João A. S. Amarante
- ORCiD
- Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB) , Martí i Franquès 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain; Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire , Preston, PR1 2HE, UK
- Rachael L. Beaton
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Phillip A. Cargile
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Cristina Chiappini
- ORCiD
- Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP) , An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam, Germany
- Charlie Conroy
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Jennifer A. Johnson
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University , 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics, Ohio State University , 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Juna A. Kollmeier
- ORCiD
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA; Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto , Toronto, ON, M5S-98H, Canada
- Haining Li
- ORCiD
- Key Lab of Optical Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories , Chinese Academy of Sciences, A20 Datun Road, Chaoyang, Beijing 100012, People's Republic of China
- Sarah Loebman
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of California , Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA
- Georges Meynet
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy of Geneva University , Switzerland
- Dmitry Bizyaev
- ORCiD
- Apache Point Observatory and New Mexico State University , P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059, USA; Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University , Moscow
- Joel R. Brownstein
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah , 115 S. 1400 E., Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
- Pramod Gupta
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- Sean Morrison
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, IL 61801, USA
- Kaike Pan
- ORCiD
- Apache Point Observatory and New Mexico State University , P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059, USA
- Solange V. Ramirez
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
- Hans-Walter Rix
- ORCiD
- Max Planck Institute for Astronomy , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- José Sánchez-Gallego
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Washington , Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad19c4
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 961,
no. 2
p. L41
Abstract
Stars that formed with an initial mass of over 50 M _⊙ are very rare today, but they are thought to be more common in the early Universe. The fates of those early, metal-poor, massive stars are highly uncertain. Most are expected to directly collapse to black holes, while some may explode as a result of rotationally powered engines or the pair-creation instability. We present the chemical abundances of J0931+0038, a nearby low-mass star identified in early follow-up of the SDSS-V Milky Way Mapper, which preserves the signature of unusual nucleosynthesis from a massive star in the early Universe. J0931+0038 has a relatively high metallicity ([Fe/H] = −1.76 ± 0.13) but an extreme odd–even abundance pattern, with some of the lowest known abundance ratios of [N/Fe], [Na/Fe], [K/Fe], [Sc/Fe], and [Ba/Fe]. The implication is that a majority of its metals originated in a single extremely metal-poor nucleosynthetic source. An extensive search through nucleosynthesis predictions finds a clear preference for progenitors with initial mass >50 M _⊙ , making J0931+0038 one of the first observational constraints on nucleosynthesis in this mass range. However, the full abundance pattern is not matched by any models in the literature. J0931+0038 thus presents a challenge for the next generation of nucleosynthesis models and motivates the study of high-mass progenitor stars impacted by convection, rotation, jets, and/or binary companions. Though rare, more examples of unusual early nucleosynthesis in metal-poor stars should be found in upcoming large spectroscopic surveys.
Keywords
- Core-collapse supernovae
- Nucleosynthesis
- Nuclear astrophysics
- Population II stars
- Population III stars
- Galactic archaeology
