Isotopes of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen as probes of nucleosynthesis, stellar mass losses and galactic evolution

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Abundance, Galactic Evolution, Mass Distribution, Nuclear Fusion, Stellar Mass Ejection, Carbon Isotopes, Chemical Properties, Comets, Giant Stars, Interstellar Matter, M Stars, Nitrogen Isotopes, Oxygen Isotopes, Planetary Nebulae

Scientific paper

Available observational data on carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and their isotopes are used to seek a simple explanation for the difference between the C-12/C-13 ratios observed in the interstellar medium and the solar system and for the spatial gradients exhibited by the N/H and N/O ratios in spiral galaxies that are not exhibited by the C-12/C-13 ratio. The relevant observations of these isotopes in interstellar matter and other astrophysical locations are reviewed along with the existence of abundance gradients as a function of distance from galactic centers. The nucleosynthetic processes involved in the production of these species are summarized, mass losses by different types of stars are evaluated, and the way in which these losses have affected the observed isotopic or elemental ratios in the solar neighborhood is described. A simple chemical-evolution model is discussed in which C-13 enrichment by nucleosynthesis in ordinary stars and novae occurred in the interstellar medium after the birth of the solar system, the N/O gradient is linked to different time scales for gas processing by stars at different distances from galactic centers, and N-14 enrichment was greater than that of C-13 because there is a lower limit to the C-12/C-13 ratio in CNO-cycle nucleosynthesis.

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