The rapid neutron capture process (r-process) Elements is known to take place in environments abundant in neutrons, such as neutron star mergers or specific types of supernovae. While it is believed to be responsible for generating chemical elements heavier than iron, the intricacies of this process remain poorly understood and cannot be directly examined in a laboratory setting. In their study, Roederer et al. scrutinized the abundances of r-process elements previously observed in stars.
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Elements
They pinpointed correlated excess abundances of specific element in certain stars, suggesting that these element could be fission products originating from even heavier element. These findings suggest that certain r-process events lead to the creation of elements heavier than uranium, which subsequently decay into the elements detected in stars. —Keith T. Smith
Abstract:
The production of the heaviest chemical elements occurs naturally through the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) in neutron star mergers or supernovae. The r-process’s ability to generate element heavier than uranium (transuranic nuclei) is not well comprehended and cannot be experimentally studied, necessitating extrapolation through nucleosynthesis models. Our investigation focused on the abundances of elements in a selection of stars enriched in r-process elements.
We observed correlations in the abundances of ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, and silver (atomic numbers Z = 44 to 47; mass numbers A = 99 to 110) with those of heavier elemen (63 ≤ Z ≤ 78, A > 150). No such correlation was observed for neighboring element (34 ≤ Z ≤ 42 and 48 ≤ Z ≤ 62). This suggests that fission fragments of transuranic nuclei contribute to these abundances. The results imply that r-process events produce neutron-rich nuclei with mass numbers exceeding 260.
