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 12C/13C could be used as an indicator of the conservativeness of mass transfer, as 13C is preferentially ejected during mass transfer while 12C 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 44V and 52Mn are strong probes of the explosion model, while for binary-stripped stars it is 48Cr. 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.

Modeling the Chemical Enrichment History of the Bulge Fossil Fragment Terzan 5

“…Another potential problem affecting the yields and thus the chemical evolution model predictions is the neglect of the effects of binary interactions among massive stars, which may be particularly relevant in the high-density environment of proto-Terzan 5. Investigations of the effects of stellar multiplicity on massive star yields are still very limited, but promising studies are ongoing (Farmer et al 2021;Farmer et al 2023).…”

Spectacular Nucleosynthesis from Early Massive Stars

“…At its [Fe/H], J0931 + 0038 is a visible low outlier in the Na, Al, K, Sc, Ti, V, Ba, and Eu panels while simultaneously being a high outlier in Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Sr. We note that this ratio and the overall products of carbon burning are subject to uncertainties in the 12 C(α,γ) 16 O rate and the treatment of convection (e.g., Imbriani et al 2001;El Eid et al 2004;deBoer et al 2017;Farmer et al 2019). Additionally, binary interactions may affect [C/O] predictions, though current models in solar metallicity stars suggest that interactions increase C yields (Farmer et al 2021(Farmer et al , 2023. 2.…”

“…We performed an extensive search of supernova yield grids covering a wide range of possible nucleosynthesis sites, covering elements from C to Zn: primordial CCSNe exploded with a piston (Heger & Woosley 2010; assuming the S4 location), thermal bomb (Nomoto et al 2013), and kinetic bomb (Limongi & Chieffi 2012) with various assumptions for mixing and fallback; CCSNe of higher metallicities (Nomoto et al 2013;Ritter et al 2018) with rotation (Limongi & Chieffi 2018) and engine-driven explosions (Ebinger et al 2020); HNe of varying energies (Nomoto et al 2013;Grimmett et al 2018); and primordial PISNe (Heger & Woosley 2002;Nomoto et al 2013). We also examined CCSNe of solar metallicity binary stripped stars (Farmer et al 2023) and thermonuclear Type Ia supernovae (references in Reggiani et al 2023), though none of these were good fits, so we do not discuss them further. We only included models with [Z/H] < − 1.5, except for the binary stripped star supernovae, where only solar metallicity models exist.…”

Detection of Metal Enrichment by SN 2011jm in NGC 4809

“…Sukhbold et al (2016) calculated the produced oxygen mass in the evolution of massive stars, estimating around 0.03 M e carried by stellar winds and 2.5 M e ejected by supernovae, respectively, at an initial mass of 21 M e . Recently, Farmer et al (2023) performed nucleosynthesis on binary-stripped stars, finding that binaries can produce more elemental mass than single stars due to efficient mass loss and an increased chance of ejecting their envelopes during a supernova formation. These findings suggest two possible scenarios: one is that the enriched ionized oxygen was contributed by stellar winds from about 33 massive stars.…”