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College of Mathematical & Physical Sciences
Department of Astronomy Colloquium Series 2006/7

Thursday, Nov 9, 3:30 p.m.
2015 McPherson Laboratory

Stellar Nucleosynthesis in Galactic History: The Carbon Stars

Dr. Thomas Masseron
The Ohio State University

In the light of recent results on their nature, their origin and their possible relation with stars of population III (still undiscovered!), I will present results from high resolution chemical analysis of a large sample of metal-poor carbon enhanced stars. I will first demonstrate the impact of molecules on the thermal structure of the atmosphere, on photometry and on the abundance determination. I will then discuss abundance results from the extended sample. I will especially focus on the heavy element abundances. It appears indeed that carbon enhanced stars split into two groups: stars only enriched in s- elements and stars enriched both in s- and r-elements. Finally, from the chemical analysis we have carried out, it turns out that our sample includes also a thermal pulsing asymptotic giant branch star, with an extremely low content of metals, making it the most evolved star among metal-poor stars.
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Modified 2006 Oct 10 [rwp]