Cococubed.com Presolar SiC Grains

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Contact: F.X.Timmes
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Carbon-rich presolar grains from massive stars: subsolar 12C/13C and 14N/15N ratios and the mystery of 15N (2015)
Carbon-rich grains with isotopic anomalies compared to the Sun are found in primitive meteorites. They were made by stars, and carry the original stellar nucleosynthesis signature. Silicon carbide grains of Type X and C, and low-density graphites condensed in the ejecta of core-collapse supernovae.

In this letter we present a new set of models for the explosive He shell and compare them with the grains showing 12C/13C and 14N/15N ratios lower than solar. In the stellar progenitor H was ingested into the He shell and not fully destroyed before the explosion. Different explosion energies and H concentrations are considered. If the SN shock hits the He-shell region with some H still present, the models can reproduce the C and N isotopic signatures in C-rich grains. Hot-CNO cycle isotopic signatures are obtained, including a large production of 13C and 15N. The short-lived radionuclides 22Na and 26Al are increased by orders of magnitude. The production of radiogenic 22Ne from the decay of 22Na in the He shell might solve the puzzle of the Ne-E(L) component in low-density graphite grains.

This scenario is attractive for the SiC grains of type AB with 14N/15N ratios lower than solar, and provides an alternative solution for SiC grains originally classified as nova grains. Finally, this process may contribute to the production of 14N and 15N in the Galaxy, helping to produce the 14N/15N ratio in the solar system.

 He-shell ejecta Ratios across the He/C region

Silicon carbide grains of type U/C provide evidence for the production of the unstable isotope 32Si in supernovae (2013)
Carbon-rich grains are observed to condense in the ejecta of recent core-collapse supernovae (SNe) within a year after the explosion. Silicon carbide grains of type X are C-rich grains with isotopic signatures of explosive SN nucleosynthesis have been found in primitive meteorites. Much rarer silicon carbide grains of type C are a special sub-group of SiC grains from SNe. They show peculiar abundance signatures for Si and S, isotopically heavy Si, and isotopically light S, which appear to be in disagreement with model predictions.

In this article we propose that C grains are formed mostly from C-rich stellar material exposed to lower SN shock temperatures than the more common type X grains. In this scenario, extreme 32S enrichments observed in C grains may be explained by the presence of short-lived 32Si (τ1/2 = 153 yr) in the ejecta, produced by neutron capture processes starting from the stable Si isotopes. No mixing from deeper Si-rich material and/or fractionation of Si from S due to molecular chemistry is needed to explain the 32Si enrichments. The abundance of 32Si in the grains can provide constraints on the neutron density reached during the SN explosion in the C-rich He shell material. The impact of the large uncertainty of the neutron capture cross sections in the 32Si region is discussed.

 abundances after explosion mass fractions and fluxes at 10-2s δ ratios isotopic ratio profile

Production of carbon-rich presolar grains from massive stars (2013)
About a year after core-collapse supernova, dust starts to condense in the ejecta. In meteorites, a fraction of C-rich presolar grains (e.g., silicon carbide (SiC) grains of Type-X and low density graphites) are identified as relics of these events, according to the anomalous isotopic abundances. Several features of these abundances remain unexplained and challenge the understanding of core-collapse supernovae explosions and nucleosynthesis.

In this article we show, for the first time, that most of the measured C-rich grain abundances can be accounted for in the C-rich material from explosive He burning in core-collapse supernovae with high shock velocities and consequent high temperatures. The inefficiency of the 12C(α,γ)16O reaction relative to the rest of the α-capture chain at T > 3.5 × 108 K causes the deepest He-shell material to be carbon-rich and silicon-rich, and depleted in oxygen. The isotopic ratio predictions in part of this material, defined here as the C/Si zone, are in agreement with the grain data. The high-temperature explosive conditions that our models reach at the bottom of the He shell can also be representative of the nucleosynthesis in hypernovae or in the high-temperature tail of a distribution of conditions in asymmetric supernovae. Finally, our predictions are consistent with the observation of large 44Ca / 40Ca observed in the grains. This is due to the production of 44Ti together with 40Ca in the C/Si zone and/or to the strong depletion of 40Ca by neutron captures.

 S-factors rates relative to 12C(α,γ) experiment vs theory for SiC-X Si-rich region of 15r in δ notation

Placing the Sun in galactic chemical evolution: mainstream SiC particles (1997)
In this article, we examine the consequences and implications of the possibilities that the best-fit m = 4/3 line of the silicon isotopic ratios measured in mainstream SiC grains is identical or parallel to the mean ISM evolution line of the silicon isotopes. Even though the mean ISM evolution proceeds along a line of unity slope when deviations are expressed in terms of the native representation (the mean ISM), the evolution line can become a slope 4/3 line in the solar representation, provided that the solar composition is displaced from the mean ISM evolution. During the course of this analysis, we introduce new methods for relating the solar composition to that of the mean ISM at the time of solar birth. These new developments offer a unique view on the meaning of the mainstream SiC particles and afford a new way of quantitatively answering the question whether the Sun has a special composition relative to the mean ISM at solar birth. If the correlation slope of the silicon isotopes in the mean ISM could be decisively established, then its value would quantify the difference between the solar and mean ISM silicon abundances. Our formalism details the transformations between the two representations and applies not only to $^{29}$Si and $^{30}$Si, but also to any two purely secondary isotopes of any element (O, Ne, Mg, and perhaps S).

 Evolution lines of the mean ISM Transformed ISM to Solar Mean ISM evolution lines

Galactic chemical evolution of Silicon isotopes: application to presolar SiC grains from meteorites (1996)
In this article, we calculate and discuss the chemical evolution of the isotopic silicon abundances in the ISM at distances and times appropriate to the birth of the solar system. This has several objectives, some of which are related to anomalous silicon isotope ratios within presolar grains extracted from meteorites; namely: (1) What is the relative importance for silicon isotopic compositions in the bulk ISM of Type II supernovae, Type Ia supernovae, and AGB stars? (2) Are $^{29}$Si and $^{30}$Si primary or secondary nucleosynthesis products? (3) In what isotopic direction in a three-isotope plot do core-collapse supernovae of different mass move the silicon isotopic composition? (4) Why do present calculations not reproduce the solar ratios for silicon isotopes, and what does that impose upon studies of anomalous Si isotopes in meteoritic silicon carbide grains? (5) Are chemical-evolution features recorded in the anomalous SiC grains? Renormalization with the calculated interstellar medium silicon isotopic composition and solar composition is as an important and recurring concept of this paper. Possible interpretations of the silicon isotope anomalies measured in single SiC grains extracted from carbonaceous meteorites are then presented. The calculations suggest that the temporal evolution of the isotopic silicon abundances in the interstellar medium may be recorded in these grains.

 Si isotope injection rates Evolution of the Si isotopes Ejecta mixed with mean computed ISM