No Arabic abstract
Standard solar models (SSM) constructed in accord with low metal abundances disagree with the seismically inferred results. We constructed rotating solar models with low metal abundances that included enhanced settling and convection overshoot. In one of our rotating models, textbf{AGSSr2a}, the convection overshoot allowed us to recover the radius of the base of convection zone (CZ) at a level of $1sigma$. The rotational mixing almost completely counteracts the enhanced settling for the surface helium abundance, but only partially for the surface heavy-element abundance. At the level of $1sigma$, the combination of rotation and enhanced settling brings the surface helium abundance into agreement with the seismically inferred value of $0.2485pm0.0035$, and makes the model have better sound-speed and density profiles than SSM constructed in accordance with high metal abundances. The radius of the base of the CZ and the surface helium abundance of textbf{AGSSr2a} are $0.713$ $R_{odot}$ and $0.2472$, respectively; the absolute values of the relative differences in sound speed and density between it and the Sun are less than $0.0025$ and $0.015$, respectively. Moreover, predicted neutrino fluxes of our model are comparable with the predictions of previous research works.
In the last decade, the photospheric abundances of the Sun had been revised several times by many observers. The standard solar models (SSM) constructed with the new low-metal abundances disagree with helioseismic results and detected neutrino fluxes. The solar model problem has been puzzled some stellar physicists for more than ten years. Rotation, enhanced diffusion, convection overshoot, and magnetic fields are used to reconcile the new abundances with helioseismology. The textbf{too} low-helium textbf{subsurface abundance} in enhanced diffusion models can be improved by the mixing caused by rotation and magnetic fields. The problem of the depth of the convective zone in rotating models can be resolved by convection overshoot. Consequently the Asplund-Grevesse-Sauval rotation model including overshooting (AGSR) reproduces the seismically inferred sound-speed and density profiles, and the convection zone depth as well as the Grevesse and Sauval (GS98) model computed before. But this model fails to reproduce the surface helium abundance which is 0.2393 ($2.6$ $sigma$ away from the seismic value) and neutrino fluxes. The magnetic model called AGSM keeps the agreement of the AGSR and improves the prediction of the surface helium abundance. The observed separation ratios $r_{02}$ and $r_{13}$ are reasonably reproduced by AGSM. Moreover, neutrino fluxes calculated by this model are not far from the detected neutrino fluxes and the predictions of previous works.
An increasing fraction of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars is found as their iron abundance, [Fe/H], decreases below [Fe/H] = -2.0. The CEMP-s stars have the highest absolute carbon abundances, [C/H], and are thought to owe their enrichment in carbon and the slow neutron-capture (s-process) elements to mass transfer from a former asymptotic giant-branch (AGB) binary companion. The most Fe-poor CEMP stars are normally single, exhibit somewhat lower [C/H] than CEMP-s stars, but show no s-process element enhancement (CEMP-no stars). CNO abundance determinations offer clues to their formation sites. C, N, Sr, and Ba abundances (or limits) and 12C/13C ratios where possible are derived for a sample of 27 faint metal-poor stars for which the X-shooter spectra have sufficient S/N ratios. These moderate resolution, low S/N (~10-40) spectra prove sufficient to perform limited chemical tagging and enable assignment of these stars into the CEMP sub-classes (CEMP-s and CEMP-no). According to the derived abundances, 17 of our sample stars are CEMP-s and three are CEMP-no, while the remaining seven are carbon-normal. For four CEMP stars, the sub-classification remains uncertain, and two of them may be pulsating AGB stars. The derived stellar abundances trace the formation processes and sites of our sample stars. The [C/N] abundance ratio is useful to identify stars with chemical compositions unaffected by internal mixing, and the [Sr/Ba] abundance ratio allows us to distinguish between CEMP-s stars with AGB progenitors and the CEMP-no stars. Suggested formation sites for the latter include faint supernovae with mixing and fallback and/or primordial, rapidly-rotating, massive stars (spinstars). X-shooter spectra have thus proved to be valuable tools in the continued search for their origin. Abridged.
Using reconstructed opacities, we construct solar models with low heavy-element abundance. Rotational mixing and enhanced diffusion of helium and heavy elements are used to reconcile the recently observed abundances with helioseismology. The sound speed and density of models where the relative and absolute diffusion coefficients for helium and heavy elements have been increased agree with seismically inferred values at better than the 0.005 and 0.02 fractional level respectively. However, the surface helium abundance of the enhanced diffusion model is too low. The low helium problem in the enhanced diffusion model can be solved to a great extent by rotational mixing. The surface helium and the convection zone depth of rotating model M04R3, which has a surface Z of 0.0154, agree with the seismic results at the levels of 1 $sigma$ and 3 $sigma$ respectively. M04R3 is almost as good as the standard model M98. Some discrepancies between the models constructed in accord with the new element abundances and seismic constraints can be solved individually, but it seems difficult to resolve them as a whole scenario.
The elements germanium (Ge, Z=32), arsenic (As, Z=33), and selenium (Se, Z=34) span the transition from charged-particle or explosive synthesis of the iron-group elements to neutron-capture synthesis of heavier elements. Among these three elements, only the chemical evolution of germanium has been studied previously. Here we use archive observations made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope and observations from several ground-based facilities to study the chemical enrichment histories of seven stars with metallicities -2.6 < [Fe/H] < -0.4. We perform a standard abundance analysis of germanium, arsenic, selenium, and several other elements produced by neutron-capture reactions. When combined with previous derivations of germanium abundances in metal-poor stars, our sample reveals an increase in the [Ge/Fe] ratios at higher metallicities. This could mark the onset of the weak s-process contribution to germanium. In contrast, the [As/Fe] and [Se/Fe] ratios remain roughly constant. These data do not directly indicate the origin of germanium, arsenic, and selenium at low metallicity, but they suggest that the weak and main components of the s-process are not likely sources.
We discuss the current status of the sample of Lithium abundances in extremely metal poor (EMP) turn-off (TO) stars collected by our group, and compare it with the available literature results. In the last years, evidences have accumulated of a progressive disruption of the Spite plateau in stars of extremely low metallicity. What appears to be a flat, thin plateau above [Fe/H]sim-2.8 turns, at lower metallicities, into a broader distribution for which the plateau level constitutes the upper limit, but more and more stars show lower Li abundances. The sample we have collected currently counts abundances or upper limits for 44 EMP TO stars between [Fe/H]=-2.5 and -3.5, plus the ultra-metal poor star SDSS J102915+172927 at [Fe/H]=-4.9. The meltdown of the Spite plateau is quite evident and, at the current status of the sample, does not appear to be restricted to the cool end of the effective temperature distribution. SDSS J102915+172927 displays an extreme Li depletion that contrasts with its otherwise quite ordinary set of [X/Fe] ratios.