Zirconium - Hafnium isotope evidence from meteorites for the decoupled synthesis of light and heavy neutron-rich nuclei

Abstract

Recent work based on analyses of meteorite and terrestrial whole-rock samples showed that the r- and s- process isotopes of Hf were homogeneously distributed throughout the inner solar system. We report new Hf isotope data for Calcium-Aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) of the CV3 carbonaceous chondrite Allende, and novel high-precision Zr isotope data for these CAIs and three carbonaceous chondrites (CM, CO, CK). Our Zr data reveal enrichments in the neutron-rich isotope 96Zr (≤1ε in 96Zr/ 90Zr) for bulk chondrites and CAIs (∼2ε). Potential isotope effects due to incomplete sample dissolution, galactic and cosmic ray spallation, and the nuclear field shift are assessed and excluded, leading to the conclusion that the 96Zr isotope variations are of nucleosynthetic origin. The 96Zr enrichments are coupled with 50Ti excesses suggesting that both nuclides were produced in the same astrophysical environment. The same CAIs also exhibit deficits in r-process Hf isotopes, which provides strong evidence for a decoupling between the nucleosynthetic processes that produce the light (A ≤ 130) and heavy (A > 130) neutron-rich isotopes. We propose that the light neutron-capture isotopes largely formed in Type II supernovae (SNeII) with higher mass progenitors than the supernovae that produced the heavy r-process isotopes. In the context of our model, the light isotopes (e.g. 96Zr) are predominantly synthesized via charged-particle reactions in a high entropy wind environment, in which Hf isotopes are not produced. Collectively, our data indicates that CAIs sampled an excess of materials produced in a normal mass (12-25 M) SNII. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..