Nucleosynthesis and Chemical Evolution of Galaxies

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Chapter Contents

Abbreviations
Preface
1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

1.1. General Introduction
1.2. Some basic facts of nuclear physics
1.3. The local abundance distribution
1.4. Brief outline of stellar evolution
2. THERMONUCLEAR REACTIONS

2.1. General properties of nuclei
2.2. Nuclear reaction physics
2.3. Non-resonant reactions
2.4. Sketch of statistical mechanics
2.5. Thermonuclear reaction rates
2.6. Resonant reactions
2.7. Neutron capture reactions
2.8. Inverse reactions
2.9. -decay and fission
2.10. Weak interactions
Notes
Problems
3. COSMIC ABUNDANCES OF ELEMENTS AND ISOTOPES

3.1. Introduction: data sources
3.2. Analysis of absorption lines
3.3. Photometric methods
3.4. Emission lines from nebulae
3.5. Abundances: main results
Notes
Problems
4. COSMOLOGICAL NUCLEOSYNTHESIS AND ABUNDANCES

4.1. Introduction
4.2. Background cosmology
4.3. Thermal history of the universe
4.4. Neutron:proton ratio
4.5. Nuclear reactions
4.6. Deuterium and ³He
4.7. Helium
4.8. Lithium 7
4.9. Non-``standard'' BBNS models
4.10. Conclusions
Notes
Problems
5. OUTLINE OF STELLAR STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION

5.1. Introduction
5.2. Time-scales and basic equations of stellar structure
5.3. Homology transformation
5.4. Degeneracy, white dwarfs and neutron stars
5.5. Hayashi effect
5.6. Hydrogen-burning
5.7. Evolution from the main sequence; the Schönberg-Chandrasekhar limit
5.8. Helium-burning
5.9. Further burning stages: evolution of massive stars
5.10. Evolution of intermediate and low-mass stars
5.11. Interacting binary stars
Notes
Problems
6. NEUTRON CAPTURE PROCESSES

6.1. Introduction
6.2. The s-process
6.3. The r-process
Notes
Problems
7. GALACTIC CHEMICAL EVOLUTION: BASIC CONCEPTS

7.1. Introduction
7.2. The overall picture
7.3. Ingredients of GCE models
7.4. The GCE equations
Notes
Problems
8. SOME SPECIFIC GCE MODELS AND RELATED

8.1. The ``Simple'' (1-zone) model
8.2. The Simple model with instantaneous recycling
8.3. Some consequences of the instantaneous Simple model
8.4. Suggested answers to the G-dwarf problem
8.5. Inflow models
8.6. Analytical models for the Galactic halo and disk
Notes
Problems
9. ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF LIGHT ELEMENTS

9.1. Introduction
9.2. Sketch of cosmic-ray physics
9.3. Light element production
9.4. Galactic chemical evolution of light elements
Notes
Problems
10. RADIOACTIVE COSMOCHRONOLOGY

10.1. Introduction
10.2. Age-dating of rocks
10.3. Galactic cosmochronology
10.4. Short-lived radioactivities
Notes
Problems
11. CHEMICAL EVOLUTION IN OTHER SORTS OF GALAXIES

11.1. Dwarf galaxies
11.2. Chemical evolution of elliptical galaxies
Problem
12. COSMIC CHEMICAL EVOLUTION AND DIFFUSE BACKGROUND RADIATION

12.1. Introduction
12.2. Luminosity evolution and the diffuse background
12.3. Luminosity evolution and nuclear fuel consumption
12.4. Abundance of processed material in the universe
12.5. Starbursts and `metal' production
12.6. Cosmic chemical evolution and high red-shift absorption-line systems
Notes
Problems
Appendix 1 Some historical landmarks
Appendix 2 Some physical and astronomical constants
Appendix 3 Time-dependent perturbation theory and transition probabilities
Appendix 4 Polytropic stellar models
Appendix 5 Dissipation and abundance gradients
Appendix 6 Hints for problems
References
Index