Do meteoritic silicon carbide grains originate from asymptotic giant branch stars of super-solar metallicity?

Maria Lugaro, Amanda I. Karakas, Mária Pető, Emese Plachy

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
In Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available online 8 June 2017

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“We compare literature data for the isotopic ratios of Zr, Sr, and Ba from analysis of single meteoritic stardust silicon carbide (SiC) grains to new predictions for the slow neutron-capture process (the s process) in metal-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. The models have initial metallicities Z=0.014Z=0.014 (solar) and Z=0.03Z=0.03 (twice-solar) and initial masses 2 – 4.5 M⊙M⊙, selected such as the condition C/O>>1 for the formation of SiC is achieved. Because of the higher Fe abundance, the twice-solar metallicity models result in a lower number of total free neutrons released by the 13C(αα,n)16O neutron source. Furthermore, the highest-mass (4 – 4.5 M⊙M⊙) AGB stars of twice-solar metallicity present a milder activation of the 22Ne(αα,n)25Mg neutron source than their solar metallicity counterparts, due to cooler temperatures resulting from the effect of higher opacities. They also have a lower amount of the 13C neutron source than the lower-mass models, following their smaller He-rich region. The combination of these different effects allows our AGB models of twice-solar metallicity to provide a match to the SiC data without the need to consider large variations in the features of the 13C neutron source nor neutron-capture processes different from the s process. This raises the question if the AGB parent stars of meteoritic SiC grains were in fact on average of twice-solar metallicity. The heavier-than-solar Si and Ti isotopic ratios in the same grains are in qualitative agreement with an origin in stars of super-solar metallicity because of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. Further, the SiC dust mass ejected from C-rich AGB stars is predicted to significantly increase with increasing the metallicity.”