arXiv subjects

R. Valiante

Publications and source records attributed to R. Valiante.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

The transition from carbon dust to silicates production in low-metallicity AGB and SAGB stars

We compute the mass and composition of dust produced by stars with masses in the range 1Msun<M<8 Msun and with a metallicity of Z=0.001 during their AGB and Super AGB phases. Stellar evolution is followed from the pre-main sequence phase using the code ATON which provides, at each timestep, the thermodynamics and the chemical stucture of the wind. We use a simple model to describe the growth of the dust grains under the hypothesis of a time-independent, spherically symmetric stellar wind. We find that the total mass of dust injected by AGB stars in the interstellar medium does not increase monotonically with stellar mass and ranges between a minimum of 10^{-6}Msun for the 1.5Msun stellar model, up to 2x10^{-4} Msun, for the 6Msun case. Dust composition depends on the stellar mass: low-mass stars (M < 3Msun) produce carbon-rich dust, whereas more massive stars, experiencing Hot Bottom Burning, never reach the carbon-star stage, and produce silicates and iron. This is in partial disagreement with previous investigations in the literature, which are based on synthetic AGB models and predict that, when the initial metallicity is Z=0.001, C-rich dust is formed at all stellar masses. The differences are due to the different modelling of turbulent convection in the super-adiabaticity regime. Also in this case the treatment of super-adiabatic convection shows up as the most relevant issue affecting the dust-formation process. We also investigate Super AGB stars with masses 6.5Msun<M<8 Msun that evolve over a ONe core.Due to a favourable combination of mass loss and Hot Bottom Burning, these stars are predicted to be the most efficient silicate-dust producers, releasing [2 - 7]x 10^{-4} Msun masses of dust. We discuss the robustness of these predictions and their relevance for the nature and evolution of dust at early cosmic times.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2009

The Effect of Different Type Ia Supernova Progenitors on Galactic Chemical Evolution

Our aim is to show how different hypotheses about Type Ia supernova progenitors can affect Galactic chemical evolution. We include different Type Ia SN progenitor models, identified by their distribution of time delays, in a very detailed chemical evolution model for the Milky Way which follows the evolution of several chemical species. We test the single degenerate and the double degenerate models for supernova Ia progenitors, as well as other more empirical models based on differences in the time delay distributions. We find that assuming the single degenerate or the double degenerate scenario produces negligible differences in the predicted [O/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] relation. On the other hand, assuming a percentage of prompt (exploding in the first 100 Myr) Type Ia supernovae of 50%, or that the maximum Type Ia rate is reached after 3-4 Gyr from the beginning of star formation, as suggested by several authors, produces more noticeable effects on the [O/Fe] trend. However, given the spread still existing in the observational data no model can be firmly excluded on the basis of only the [O/Fe] ratios. On the other hand, when the predictions of the different models are compared with the G-dwarf metallicity distribution, the scenarios with very few prompt Type Ia supernovae can be excluded. Models including the single degenerate or double degenerate scenario with a percentage of 10-13% of prompt Type Ia supernovae produce results in very good agreement with the observations. A fraction of prompt Type Ia supernovae larger than 30% worsens the agreement with observations and the same occurs if no prompt Type Ia supernovae are allowed. In particular, two empirical models for the Type Ia SN progenitors can be excluded: the one without prompt Type Ia supernovae and the one assuming delay time distribution going like t^{-0.5}.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2009

Theoretical cosmic Type Ia supernova rates

The aim of this work is the computation of the cosmic Type Ia supernova rates at very high redshifts (z>2). We adopt various progenitor models in order to predict the number of explosions in different scenarios for galaxy formation and to check whether it is possible to select the best delay time distribution model, on the basis of the available observations of Type Ia supernovae. We also computed the Type Ia supernova rate in typical elliptical galaxies of different initial luminous masses and the total amount of iron produced by Type Ia supernovae in each case. It emerges that: it is not easy to select the best delay time distribution scenario from the observational data and this is because the cosmic star formation rate dominates over the distribution function of the delay times; the monolithic collapse scenario predicts an increasing trend of the SN Ia rate at high redshifts whereas the predicted rate in the hierarchical scheme drops dramatically at high redshift; for the elliptical galaxies we note that the predicted maximum of the Type Ia supernova rate depends on the initial galactic mass. The maximum occurs earlier (at about 0.3 Gyr) in the most massive ellipticals, as a consequence of downsizing in star formation. We find that different delay time distributions predict different relations between the Type Ia supernova rate per unit mass at the present time and the color of the parent galaxies and that bluer ellipticals present higher supernova Type Ia rates at the present time.

astro-ph↗