The evolution of low-metallicity asymptotic giant branch stars and the formation of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars

Abstract

We investigate the behaviour of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars between metallicities Z = 10-4 and 10-8. We determine which stars undergo an episode of flash-driven mixing, where protons are ingested into the intershell convection zone, as they enter the thermally pulsing AGB phase and which undergo third dredge-up. We find that flash-driven mixing does not occur above a metallicity of Z = 10-5 for any mass of star and that stars above 2 M⊙ do not experience this phenomenon at any metallicity. We find carbon ingestion (CI), the mixing of carbon into the tail of hydrogen-burning region, occurs in the mass range 2 M⊙ to around 4 M⊙. We suggest that CI may be a weak version of the flash-driven mechanism. We also investigate the effects of convective overshooting on the behaviour of these objects. Our models struggle to explain the frequency of Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) stars that have both significant carbon and nitrogen enhancement. Carbon can be enhanced through flash-driven mixing, CI or just third dredge-up. Nitrogen can be enhanced through hot bottom burning and the occurrence of hot dredge-up also converts carbon into nitrogen. The C/N ratio may be a good indicator of the mass of the primary AGB stars. © 2009 RAS.