Relations between nucleosynthesis rates and the metal abundance
Abstract
The metal abundance resulting from a given rate of nucleosynthesis is often expressed as the mass of metals ever ejected from stars divided by the total mass of the system. For this expression to be valid, the 'total mass' must include only material that was enriched during the appropriate period of galactic evolution, and must exclude any objects that condensed at an earlier epoch. This obvious requirement seems to have been overlooked in the literature. When a consistent 'total mass' is used, the above expression is essentially equal to the yield, which is known to be a useful estimate of the metal abundance.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- September 1980
- Bibcode:
- 1980A&A....89..246T
- Keywords:
-
- Abundance;
- Metallic Stars;
- Nuclear Fusion;
- Stellar Mass Ejection;
- Galactic Evolution;
- Mass Distribution;
- Rates (Per Time);
- Stellar Evolution;
- Astrophysics