Abundances of ultraheavy elements in the cosmic radiation - Results from HEAO 3

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 1989 papers

Abstract

An analysis is presented that, for the first time, systematically normalizes the data from the HEAO 3 heavy nuclei experiment on the cosmic-ray abundances of all the elements heavier than germanium to that of iron. In the range of atomic number Z from 33 to 60, the analysis yields abundances of odd-even element pairs. The abundances are consistent with a cosmic-ray source having a composition similar to that of the solar system, but subject to source fractionation correlated with the first ionization potential (FIP) of each element. For Z greater than 60, the analysis yields abundances of element groups. For these heaviest nuclei, we find an enhancement of the abundance of the platinum group, elements with Z of 74-80, relative to that in propagated solar system source, and a corresponding increase in the abundance of the largely secondary elements in the 62-73 range. These abundances suggest that there is an enhancement of the r-process contribution to the source nuclei in the Z greater than 60 charge region. Over the entire region of charge, standard leaky box models of propagation satisfactorily model secondary production.

Related Papers

• → Constraint on Heavy Element Production in Inhomogeneous Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis from the Light Element Observations(2013)7 cited
• → The abundance distribution of neutron-capture elements in metal-poor stars(2001)
• → Nucleosynthesis in Magnetohydrodynamical Jets from Collapsars(2011)
• The abundance distribution of elements captured by neutrons in metal-poor stars(2001)
• → Heavy Puzzle Pieces: Learning About the i Process from Pb Abundances(2019)