REPRODUCING THE OBSERVED ABUNDANCES IN RCB AND HdC STARS WITH POST-DOUBLE-DEGENERATE MERGER MODELS-CONSTRAINTS ON MERGER AND POST-MERGER SIMULATIONS AND PHYSICS PROCESSES
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P5C2 (Canada)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, 202 Nicholson Hall, Tower Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4001 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel (Switzerland)
- Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and Department of Physics, Kohn Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)
The R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars are hydrogen-deficient, variable stars that are most likely the result of He-CO WD mergers. They display extremely low oxygen isotopic ratios, {sup 16}O/{sup 18}O {approx_equal} 1-10, {sup 12}C/{sup 13}C {>=} 100, and enhancements up to 2.6 dex in F and in s-process elements from Zn to La, compared to solar. These abundances provide stringent constraints on the physical processes during and after the double-degenerate merger. As shown previously, O-isotopic ratios observed in RCB stars cannot result from the dynamic double-degenerate merger phase, and we now investigate the role of the long-term one-dimensional spherical post-merger evolution and nucleosynthesis based on realistic hydrodynamic merger progenitor models. We adopt a model for extra envelope mixing to represent processes driven by rotation originating in the dynamical merger. Comprehensive nucleosynthesis post-processing simulations for these stellar evolution models reproduce, for the first time, the full range of the observed abundances for almost all the elements measured in RCB stars: {sup 16}O/{sup 18}O ratios between 9 and 15, C-isotopic ratios above 100, and {approx}1.4-2.35 dex F enhancements, along with enrichments in s-process elements. The nucleosynthesis processes in our models constrain the length and temperature in the dynamic merger shell-of-fire feature as well as the envelope mixing in the post-merger phase. s-process elements originate either in the shell-of-fire merger feature or during the post-merger evolution, but the contribution from the asymptotic giant branch progenitors is negligible. The post-merger envelope mixing must eventually cease {approx}10{sup 6} yr after the dynamic merger phase before the star enters the RCB phase.
- OSTI ID:
- 22121862
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 772, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Improved Models of R Coronae Borealis Stars
The Role of Dredge-up in Double White Dwarf Mergers