2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Explosive synthesis of heavy elements in the Milky Way Galaxy

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20740114
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Astronomy
Research Institution	National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Principal Investigator	AOKI Wakou National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 光赤外研究部, 助教 (20321581)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2009
Keywords	元素合成 / 超新星爆発 / 低金属星 / 銀河系 / 分光観測
Research Abstract	Chemical abundances of the heaviest elements Thorium and Lead have been measured for Galactic stars to investigate the contributions of the neutron-capture processes that yields elements heavier than iron. Observations are extended to the metallicity range that has not well studied by previous work. We revealed that contributions of the explosive synthesis of heavy elements (the r-process) are dominant in the Galactic halo and thick disk structures, and also found a decreasing trend of scatter in abundance ratios between Thorium and other heavy elements with increasing metallicity.

(4 results)