Published in

American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2(737), p. L34, 2011

DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/737/2/l34

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Nucleosynthesis during the Merger of White Dwarfs and the Origin of R Coronae Borealis Stars

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Red circle
Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Many hydrogen-deficient stars are characterized by surface abundance patterns that are hard to reconcile with conventional stellar evolution. Instead, it has been suggested that they may represent the result of a merger episode between a helium and a carbon-oxygen white dwarf. In this Letter, we present a nucleosynthesis study of the merger of a 0.4 M ☉ helium white dwarf with a 0.8 M ☉ carbon-oxygen white dwarf, by coupling the thermodynamic history of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics particles with a post-processing code. The resulting chemical abundance pattern, particularly for oxygen and fluorine, is in qualitative agreement with the observed abundances in R Coronae Borealis stars. ; Fil: Longland, Richard. Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya; España. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya; España ; Fil: Loren Aguilar, P. Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya; España. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya; España ; Fil: Jose, J. Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya; España. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya; España ; Fil: Garcia Berro, E. Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya; España. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya; España ; Fil: Althaus, Leandro Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata; Argentina ; Fil: Isern, J. Institut de Ciencies de l’Espai; España. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya; España