Rubidium in the Interstellar Medium

KM Walker, SR Federman, DC Knauth… - The Astrophysical …, 2009 - iopscience.iop.org
KM Walker, SR Federman, DC Knauth, DL Lambert
The Astrophysical Journal, 2009iopscience.iop.org
We present observations of interstellar rubidium toward o Per, ζ Per, AE Aur, HD 147889, χ
Oph, ζ Oph, and 20 Aql. Theory suggests that stable 85 Rb and long-lived 87 Rb are
produced predominantly by high-mass stars, through a combination of the weak s-and r-
processes. The 85 Rb/87 Rb ratio was determined from measurements of the Rb i line at
7800 Å and was compared to the solar system meteoritic ratio of 2.59. Within 1σ
uncertainties, all directions except HD 147889 have Rb isotope ratios consistent with the …
Abstract
We present observations of interstellar rubidium toward o Per, ζ Per, AE Aur, HD 147889, χ Oph, ζ Oph, and 20 Aql. Theory suggests that stable 85 Rb and long-lived 87 Rb are produced predominantly by high-mass stars, through a combination of the weak s-and r-processes. The 85 Rb/87 Rb ratio was determined from measurements of the Rb i line at 7800 Å and was compared to the solar system meteoritic ratio of 2.59. Within 1σ uncertainties, all directions except HD 147889 have Rb isotope ratios consistent with the solar system value. The ratio toward HD 147889 is much lower than the meteoritic value and similar to that toward ρ Oph A; both lines of sight probe the Rho Ophiuchus Molecular Cloud. The earlier result was attributed to a deficit of r-processed 85 Rb. Our larger sample suggests instead that 87 Rb is enhanced in these two lines of sight. When the total elemental abundance of Rb is compared to the K elemental abundance, the interstellar Rb/K ratio is significantly lower than the meteoritic ratio for all the sight lines in this study. Available interstellar samples for other s-and r-process elements are used to help interpret these results.
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