arXiv subjects

N. Prantzos

Publications and source records attributed to N. Prantzos.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Revisiting nucleosynthesis in globular clusters: the case of NGC 2808 and the role of He and K

Motivated by recent reports concerning the observation of limited enrichment in He but excess K in stars of globular clusters, we revisit the H-burning conditions that lead to the chemical properties of multiple stellar populations in these systems. In particular, we are interested in correlations of He and K with other elements, like O, Na, Al, Mg and Si, reported in stars of NGC 2808. We perform calculations of nucleosynthesis at constant temperature and density, exploring the temperature range of 25 to 200 10$^6$ K (25 to 200 MK), using a detailed nuclear reaction network and the most up-to-date nuclear reaction rates. We find that Mg is the most sensitive "thermometer" of hydrostatic H-burning conditions, pointing to a temperature range of 70-80 MK for NGC~2808, while He is a lesser - but not negligible - constraint. K can be produced at the levels reported for NGC 2808 at temperatures $>$180 MK and Si at T$>$80 MK. However, in the former temperature range Al and Na are totally destroyed and no correlation can be obtained, in contrast to the reported observations. None of the putative polluter sources proposed so far seem to satisfy the ensemble of nucleosynthesis constraints.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

The AMBRE project: a study of Li evolution in the Galactic thin and thick discs

Recent observations suggest a "double-branch" behaviour of Li/H versus metallicity in the local thick and thin discs. This is reminiscent of the corresponding O/Fe versus Fe/H behaviour, which has been explained as resulting from radial migration in the Milky Way disc. We use a semi-analytical model of disc evolution with updated chemical yields and parameterised radial migration. We explore the cases of long-lived (red giants of a few Gy lifetime) and shorter-lived (Asymptotic Giant Branch stars of several 10$^8$ yr) stellar sources of Li, as well as those of low and high primordial Li. We show that both factors play a key role in the overall Li evolution. We find that the observed "two-branch" Li behaviour is only directly obtained in the case of long-lived stellar Li sources and low primordial Li. In all other cases, the data imply systematic Li depletion in stellar envelopes, thus no simple picture of the Li evolution can be obtained. This concerns also the reported Li/H decrease at supersolar metallicities.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

The Gaia-ESO Survey: radial distribution of abundances in the Galactic disc from open clusters and young field stars

The spatial distribution of elemental abundances in the disc of our Galaxy gives insights both on its assembly process and subsequent evolution, and on the stellar nucleogenesis of the different elements. Gradients can be traced using several types of objects as, for instance, (young and old) stars, open clusters, HII regions, planetary nebulae. We aim at tracing the radial distributions of abundances of elements produced through different nucleosynthetic channels -the alpha-elements O, Mg, Si, Ca and Ti, and the iron-peak elements Fe, Cr, Ni and Sc - by using the Gaia-ESO idr4 results of open clusters and young field stars. From the UVES spectra of member stars, we determine the average composition of clusters with ages >0.1 Gyr. We derive statistical ages and distances of field stars. We trace the abundance gradients using the cluster and field populations and we compare them with a chemo-dynamical Galactic evolutionary model. Results. The adopted chemo-dynamical model, with the new generation of metallicity-dependent stellar yields for massive stars, is able to reproduce the observed spatial distributions of abundance ratios, in particular the abundance ratios of [O/Fe] and [Mg/Fe] in the inner disc (5 kpc<RGC <7 kpc), with their differences, that were usually poorly explained by chemical evolution models. Often, oxygen and magnesium are considered as equivalent in tracing alpha-element abundances and in deducing, e.g., the formation time-scales of different Galactic stellar populations. In addition, often [alpha/Fe] is computed combining several alpha-elements. Our results indicate, as expected, a complex and diverse nucleosynthesis of the various alpha-elements, in particular in the high metallicity regimes, pointing towards a different origin of these elements and highlighting the risk of considering them as a single class with common features.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Metallicity-dependendent kinematics and morphology of the Milky Way bulge

We use N-body chemo-dynamic simulations to study the coupling between morphology, kinematics and metallicity of the bar/bulge region of our Galaxy. We make qualitative comparisons of our results with available observations and find very good agreement. We conclude that this region is complex, since it comprises several stellar components with different properties -- i.e. a boxy/peanut bulge, thin and thick disc components, and, to lesser extents, a disky pseudobulge, a stellar halo and a small classical bulge -- all cohabiting in dynamical equilibrium. Our models show strong links between kinematics and metallicity, or morphology and metallicity, as already suggested by a number of recent observations. We discuss and explain these links.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

The AMBRE Project: Constraining the lithium evolution in the Milky Way

The chemical evolution of lithium in the Milky Way represents a major problem in modern astrophysics. Indeed, lithium is, on the one hand, easily destroyed in stellar interiors, and, on the other hand, produced at some specific stellar evolutionary stages that are still not well constrained. The goal of this paper is to investigate the lithium stellar content of Milky Way stars in order to put constraints on the lithium chemical enrichment in our Galaxy, in particular in both the thin and thick discs. Thanks to high-resolution spectra from the ESO archive and high quality atmospheric parameters, we were able to build a massive and homogeneous catalogue of lithium abundances for 7300 stars derived with an automatic method coupling, a synthetic spectra grid, and a Gauss-Newton algorithm. We validated these lithium abundances with literature values, including those of the Gaia benchmark stars. In terms of lithium galactic evolution, we show that the interstellar lithium abundance increases with metallicity by 1 dex from [M/H]=-1 dex to +0.0 dex. Moreover, we find that this lithium ISM abundance decreases by about 0.5 dex at super-solar metalllicity. Based on a chemical separation, we also observed that the stellar lithium content in the thick disc increases rather slightly with metallicity, while the thin disc shows a steeper increase. The lithium abundance distribution of alpha-rich, metal-rich stars has a peak at A(Li)~3 dex. We conclude that the thick disc stars suffered of a low lithium chemical enrichment, showing lithium abundances rather close to the Spite plateau while the thin disc stars clearly show an increasing lithium chemical enrichment with the metallicity, probably thanks to the contribution of low-mass stars.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Evolution of the Milky Way with radial motions of stars and gas I. The solar neighborhood and the thin and thick disk

We study the role of radial migration of stars on the chemical evolution of the Milky Way disk. In particular, we are interested in the impact of that process on the local properties of the disk (age-metallicity relation and its dispersion, metallicity distribution, evolution of abundance ratios) and on the morphological properties of the resulting thick and thin disks.We use a model with several new or up-dated ingredients: atomic and molecular gas phases, star formation depending on molecular gas, yields from the recent homogeneous grid provided by Nomoto et al. (2013), observationally inferred SNIa rates. We describe radial migration with parametrised time- and radius-dependent diffusion coefficients, based on the analysis of a N-body+SPH simulation. We also consider parametrised radial gas flows, induced by the action of the Galactic bar. Our model reproduces well the present day values of most of the main global observables of the MW disk and bulge, and also the observed "stacked" evolution of MW-type galaxies from van Dokkum et al. (2013). The azimuthally averaged radial velocity of gas inflow is constrained to less than a few tenths of km/s. Radial migration is constrained by the observed dispersion in the age-metallicity relation. Assuming that the thick disk is the oldest (>9 Gyr) part of the disk, we find that the adopted radial migration scheme can reproduce quantitatively the main local properties of the thin and thick disk. The thick disk extends up to ~11 kpc and has a scale length of 1.8 kpc, considerably shorter than the thin disk, because of the inside-out formation scheme. We also show how, in this framework, current and forthcoming spectroscopic observations can constrain the nucleosynthesis yields of massive stars for the metallicity range of 0.1 solar to 2-3 solar.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Evolution of the Milky Way with radial motions of stars and gas II. The evolution of abundance profiles from H to Ni

We study the role of radial motions of stars and gas on the evolution of abundance profiles in the Milky Way disk. We investigate, in a parametrized way, the impact of radial flows of gas and radial migration of stars induced mainly by the Galactic bar and its iteraction with the spiral arms. We use a model with several new or up-dated ingredients (atomic and molecular gas phases, star formation depending on molecular gas, recent sets of metallicity-dependent stellar yields from H to Ni, observationally inferred SNIa rates), which reproduces well most global and local observables of the Milky Way. We obtain abundance profiles flattening both in the inner disk (because of radial flows) and in the outer disk (because of the adopted star formation law). The gas abundance profiles flatten with time, but the corresponding stellar profiles appear to be steeper for younger stars, because of radial migration. We find a correlation between the stellar abundance profiles and O/Fe, which is a proxy for stellar age. Our final abundance profiles are in overall agreement with observations, but slightly steeper (by 0.01-0.02 dex/kpc) for elements above S. We find an interesting "odd-even effect" in the behaviour of the abundance profiles (steeper slopes for odd elements) for all sets of stellar yields; however, this behaviour does not appear in observations, suggesting that the effect is, perhaps, overestimated in current stellar nucleosynthesis calculations.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

Radial migration in a bar-dominated disk galaxy I: Impact on chemical evolution

We study radial migration and chemical evolution in a bar-dominated disk galaxy, by analyzing the results of a fully self-consistent, high resolution N-body+SPH simulation. We find different behaviours for gas and star particles. Gas within corotation is driven in the central regions by the bar, where it forms a pseudo-bulge (disky-bulge), but it undergoes negligible radial displacement outside the bar region. Stars undergo substantial radial migration at all times, caused first by transient spiral arms and later by the bar. Despite the important amount of radial migration occurring in our model, its impact on the chemical properties is limited. The reason is the relatively flat abundance profile, due to the rapid early evolution of the whole disk. We show that the implications of radial migration on chemical evolution can be studied to a good accuracy by post-processing the results of the N-body+SPH calculation with a simple chemical evolution model having detailed chemistry and a parametrized description of radial migration. We find that radial migration impacts on chemical evolution both directly (by moving around the long-lived agents of nucleosynthesis, like e.g. SNIa or AGB stars, and thus altering the abundance profiles of the gas) and indirectly (by moving around the long-lived tracers of chemical evolution and thus affecting stellar metallicity profiles, local age-metallicity relations and metallicity distributions of stars, etc.).

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

A method for quantifying the Gamma Ray Burst "bias". Application in the redshift range 0-1.1

Long Gamma Ray Bursts (LGRBs) are related to the final stages of evolution of massive stars. As such, they should follow the star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies. We can use them to probe for star-forming galaxies (SFGs) in the distant universe following this assumption. The relation between the rate of LGRBs in a given galaxy and its SFR (that we call the LGRB "bias") may be complex, as we have indications that the LGRB hosts are not perfect analogues to the general population of SFGs. In this work, we try to quantify the dependence of the LGRB bias on physical parameters of their host galaxy such as the SFR or the stellar mass. We propose an empirical method based on the comparison of stellar mass functions (and SFR distributions) of LGRB hosts and of SFGs in order to find how the bias depends on the stellar mass or the SFR. By applying this method to a sample of LGRB hosts at redshifts lower than 1.1, where the properties of SFGs are well established, and where the properties of LGRB host galaxies can be deduced from observations (for stellar masses larger than 10**9.25 Msun and SFR larger than 1.8 Msun / yr), we find that the LGRB bias depends on both the stellar mass and SFR. We find that the bias decreases with the SFR, i.e. we see no preference for highly SFGs, once taken into account the larger number of massive stars in galaxies with larger SFR. We do not find any trend with the specific star formation rate (SSFR) but the dynamical range in SSFR in our study is narrow. Although through an indirect method, we relate these trends to a possible decrease of the LGRBs rate / SFR ratio with the metallicity. The method we propose suggests trends that may be useful to constrain models of LGRB progenitors, showing a clear decrease of the LGRB bias with the metallicity. This is promising for the future as the number of LGRB hosts studied will increase.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

The role of massive stars in the turbulent infancy of Galactic globular clusters: Feedback on the intracluster medium, and detailed timeline

A major paradigm shift has recently revolutionized our picture of globular clusters (GC) that were long thought to be simple systems of coeval stars born out of homogeneous material. Indeed, detailed abundance studies of GC long-lived low-mass stars performed with 8-10m class telescopes, together with high-precision photometry of Galactic GCs obtained with HST,have brought compelling clues on the presence of multiple stellar populations in individual GCs. These stellar subgroups can be recognized thanks to their different chemical properties (more precisely by abundance differences in light elements from carbon to aluminium; see Bragaglia, this volume) and by the appearance of multimodal sequences in the colour-magnitude diagrams (see Piotto, this volume). This has a severe impact on our understanding of the early evolution of GCs, and in particular of the possible role that massive stars played in shaping the intra-cluster medium (ICM) and in inducing secondary star formation. Here we summarize the detailed timeline we have recently proposed for the first 40 Myrs in the lifetime of a typical GC following the general ideas of our so-called "Fast Rotating Massive stars scenario" (FRMS, Decressin et al. 2007b) and taking into account the dynamics of interstellar bubbles produced by stellar winds and supernovae. More details can be found in Krause et al. (2012, 2013).

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

How did globular clusters lose their gas?

We summarize the results presented in Krause et al. (2012) on the impact of supernova-driven shells and dark-remnant accretion on gas expulsion in globular cluster infancy.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Production and evolution of Li, Be and B isotopes in the Galaxy

We reassess the problem of the production and evolution of the light elements Li, Be and B and of their isotopes in the Milky Way, in the light of new observational and theoretical developments. The main novelty is the introduction of a new scheme for the origin of Galactic cosmic rays (GCR), which for the first time enables a self-consistent calculation of their composition during galactic evolution. The scheme accounts for key features of the present-day GCR source composition, it is based on the wind yields of the Geneva models of rotating, mass losing stars and it is fully coupled to a detailed galactic chemical evolution code. We find that the adopted GCR source composition accounts naturally for the observations of primary Be and helps understanding why Be follows closer Fe than O. We find that GCR produce ~70% of the solar B11/B10 isotopic ratio; the remaining 30% of B11 presumably result from neutrino-nucleosynthesis in massive star explosions. We find that GCR and primordial nucleosynthesis can make at most 30% of solar Li. At least half of solar Li has to originate in low-mass stellar sources (red giants, asymptotic giant branch stars or novae), but the required average yields of those sources are found to be much larger than obtained in current models of stellar nucleosynthesis. We also present radial profiles of LiBeB elemental and isotopic abundances in the Milky Way disc. We argue that the shape of those profiles - and the late evolution of LiBeB in general - reveals important features of the production of those light elements through primary and secondary processes.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2011

On the origin and composition of Galactic cosmic rays

The composition of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) presents strong similarities to the standard (cosmic) composition, but also noticeable differences, the most important being the high isotopic ratio of Ne22/Ne20 which is about 5 times higher in GCR than in the Sun. This ratio provides key information on the GCR origin. We investigate the idea that GCR are accelerated by the forward shocks of supernova explosions, as they run through the presupernova winds of the massive stars and through the interstellar medium. We use detailed wind and core yields of rotating and non-rotating models of massive stars with mass loss, as well as simple models for the properties of the forward shock and of the circumstellar medium. We find that the observed GCR Ne22/Ne20 ratio can be explained if GCR are accelerated only during the early Sedov phase, for shock velocities >1500-1900 km/s. The acceleration efficiency is found to be of the order of 1.e-6 - 1.e-5, i.e. a few particles out of a million encountered by the shock escape the SN at GCR energies. We also show quantitatively that the widely publicized idea that GCR are accelerated in superbubbles fails to account for the high Ne22/Ne20 ratio in GCR

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

GRIPS - Gamma-Ray Imaging, Polarimetry and Spectroscopy

We propose to perform a continuously scanning all-sky survey from 200 keV to 80 MeV achieving a sensitivity which is better by a factor of 40 or more compared to the previous missions in this energy range. The Gamma-Ray Imaging, Polarimetry and Spectroscopy (GRIPS) mission addresses fundamental questions in ESA's Cosmic Vision plan. Among the major themes of the strategic plan, GRIPS has its focus on the evolving, violent Universe, exploring a unique energy window. We propose to investigate $γ$-ray bursts and blazars, the mechanisms behind supernova explosions, nucleosynthesis and spallation, the enigmatic origin of positrons in our Galaxy, and the nature of radiation processes and particle acceleration in extreme cosmic sources including pulsars and magnetars. The natural energy scale for these non-thermal processes is of the order of MeV. Although they can be partially and indirectly studied using other methods, only the proposed GRIPS measurements will provide direct access to their primary photons. GRIPS will be a driver for the study of transient sources in the era of neutrino and gravitational wave observatories such as IceCUBE and LISA, establishing a new type of diagnostics in relativistic and nuclear astrophysics. This will support extrapolations to investigate star formation, galaxy evolution, and black hole formation at high redshifts.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2011

Radial distribution of stars, gas and dust in SINGS galaxies. III. Modeling the evolution of the stellar component in galaxy disks

(Abridged) We analyze the evolution of 42 spiral galaxies in the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey, using extinction-corrected UV, optical and near-infrared radial profiles to probe the emission of stars of different ages as a function of radius. We fit these profiles with models that describe the chemical and spectro-photometric evolution of spiral disks within a self-consistent framework. These backward models succesfully reproduce the multi-wavelength profiles of our galaxies, except the UV profiles of some early-type disks. From the model fitting we infer the maximum circular velocity of the rotation curve (Vc) and the dimensionless spin parameter (lambda). The values of Vc are in good agreement with the velocities measured in HI rotation curves. While our sample is not volume-limited, the resulting distribution of spins is close to the lognormal function obtained in cosmological N-body simulations, peaking at ~0.03 regardless of the total halo mass. We do not find any evident trend between spin and Hubble type, besides an increase in the scatter for the latest types. According to the model, galaxies evolve along a roughly constant mass-size relation, increasing their scale-lengths as they become more massive. The radial scale-length of most disks in our sample seems to have increased at a rate of 0.05-0.06 kpc/Gyr, being now 20-25% larger than at z=1.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

The 511 keV emission from positron annihilation in the Galaxy

The first gamma-ray line originating from outside the solar system that was ever detected is the 511 keV emission from positron annihilation in the Galaxy. Despite 30 years of intense theoretical and observational investigation, the main sources of positrons have not been identified up to now. Observations in the 1990's with OSSE/CGRO showed that the emission is strongly concentrated towards the Galactic bulge. In the 2000's, the SPI instrument aboard ESA's INTEGRAL gamma-ray observatory allowed scientists to measure that emission across the entire Galaxy, revealing that the bulge/disk luminosity ratio is larger than observed in any other wavelength. This mapping prompted a number of novel explanations, including rather "exotic ones (e.g. dark matter annihilation). However, conventional astrophysical sources, like type Ia supernovae, microquasars or X-ray binaries, are still plausible candidates for a large fraction of the observed total 511 keV emission of the bulge. A closer study of the subject reveals new layers of complexity, since positrons may propagate far away from their production sites, making it difficult to infer the underlying source distribution from the observed map of 511 keV emission. However, contrary to the rather well understood propagation of high energy (>GeV) particles of Galactic cosmic rays, understanding the propagation of low energy (~MeV) positrons in the turbulent, magnetized interstellar medium, still remains a formidable challenge. We review the spectral and imaging properties of the observed 511 keV emission and we critically discuss candidate positron sources and models of positron propagation in the Galaxy.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Milky Way vs Andromeda: a tale of two disks

We study the chemical evolution of the disks of the Milky Way (MW) and of Andromeda (M31), in order to reveal common points and differences between the two major galaxies of the Local group. We use a large set of observational data for M31, including recent observations of the Star Formation Rate (SFR) and gas profiles, as well as stellar metallicity distributions along its disk. We show that, when expressed in terms of the corresponding disk scale lengths, the observed radial profiles of MW and M31 exhibit interesting similarities, suggesting the possibility of a description within a common framework. We find that the profiles of stars, gas fraction and metallicity of the two galaxies, as well as most of their global properties, are well described by our model, provided the star formation efficiency in M31 disk is twice as large as in the MW. We show that the star formation rate profile of M31 cannot be fitted with any form of the Kennicutt-Schmidt law (KS Law) for star formation. We attribute those discrepancies to the fact that M31 has undergone a more active star formation history, even in the recent past, as suggested by observations of a "head-on" collision with the neighboring M32 galaxy about 200 Myr ago. The MW has most probably undergone a quiescent secular evolution, making possible a fairly successful description with a simple model. If M31 is more typical of spiral galaxies, as recently suggested by Hammer et al. (2007), more complex models, involving galaxy interactions, will be required for the description of spirals.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2009

Relative frequencies of supernovae types: dependence on host galaxy magnitude, galactocentric radius and local metallicity

Context: Stellar evolution theory suggests that the relationship between number ratios of supernova (SN) types and metallicity holds important clues as to the nature of the progenitor stars (mass, metallicity, rotation, binarity, etc). Aims: We investigate the metallicity dependence of number ratios of various SN types, using a large sample of SN along with information on their radial position in, and magnitude of, their host galaxy. Methods: We derive typical galaxian metallicities (using the well known metallicity-luminosity relation) and local metallicities, i.e. at the position of the SN; in the latter case, we use the empirical fact that the metallicity gradients in disk galaxies are ~ constant when expressed in dex/R25. Results: We confirm a dependence of the N(Ibc)/N(II) ratio on metallicity; recent single star models with rotation and binary star models with no rotation appear to reproduce equally well that metallicity dependence. The size of our sample does not allow significant conclusions on the N(Ic)/N(Ib) ratio. Finally, we find an unexpected metallicity dependence of the ratio of thermonuclear to core collapse supernovae, which we interpret in terms of the star formation properties of the host galaxies.

astro-ph.HE↗