High-resolution abundance analysis of very metal-poor r-I stars

Abstract

Based on high-resolution spectra obtained with the VLT/UVES spectrograph, we derived abundances for a sample of metal-poor r-I stars, in order to understand the role of such stars for constraining the astrophysical nucleosynthesis event(s) responsible for the production of the r-process, and to investigate whether they differ, in any significant way, from the r-II stars. The results are compared with r-II and normal very and extremely metal-poor stars reported in the literature. Ages based on radioactive chronometry are explored using different models, and a number of conclusions about the r-process and the r-I stars are presented.