Speaker
Description
The $^{26}$Al short-lived radioactive nucleus is the source of the observed galactic diffuse emission at 1.8 MeV. While different sources of $^{26}$Al have been explored, such as AGB stars, massive stars winds, and supernovae, the contribution of very massive stars have never been studied.
We present new results on the stellar wind contribution of very massive stars, i.e. stars with initial masses between 150 and 300 M$_\odot$ to the enrichment in $^{26}$Al of the galactic interstellar medium.
We discuss the production of $^{26}$Al by studying rotating and non-rotating very massive stellar models with initial masses between 150 and 300 M$_\odot$ for metallicities Z=0.006, 0.014, and 0.020. We confront this result to a simple Milky Way model taking into account both the metallicity and the star formation rate gradients.
We obtain that very massive stars in the metallicity range considered in this work might be very significant contributors to the $^{26}$Al enrichment of the interstellar medium. Typically, the contribution of massive star winds to the total quantity of $^{26}$Al in the Galaxy increases by 150\% when very massive stars are considered.
Very massive stars, despite their rarity, might be important contributors to $^{26}$Al and overall very important actors for nucleosynthesis in the Galaxy.
| Length of presentation requested | Oral presentation: 17 min + 3 min questions |
|---|---|
| Please select between one and three keywords related to your abstract | Nucleosynthesis |
| 2nd keyword (optional) | Stellar evolution |
