Non-LTE Line-Formation and Abundances of Sulfur and Zinc in F, G, and K Stars

Extensive statistical-equilibrium calculations on neutral sulfur and zinc were carried out, in order to investigate how the non-LTE effect plays a role in the determination of S and Zn abundances in F, G, and K stars. Having checked on the spectra of representative F-type stars (Polaris, Procyon, and alpha Per) and the Sun that our non-LTE corrections yield a reasonable consistency between the abundances derived from different lines, we tried an extensive non-LTE reanalysis of published equivalent-width data of S I and Zn I lines for metal-poor halo/disk stars. According to our calculations, S I 9212/9228/9237 lines suffer significant negative non-LTE corrections amounting to <~ 0.2--0.3 dex, while LTE is practically valid for S I 8683/8694 lines. Embarrassingly, as far as the very metal-poor regime is concerned, a marked discordance is observed between the [S/Fe] values from these two abundance indicators, in the sense that the former attains a nearly flat plateau (or even a slight downward bending) while the latter shows an ever-increasing trend with a further lowering of metallicity. The reason for this discrepancy is yet to be clarified. Regarding Zn, we almost confirmed the characteristic tendencies of [Zn/Fe] reported from recent LTE studies (i.e., an evident/slight increase of [Zn/Fe] with a decrease of [Fe/H] for very metal-poor/disk stars), since the non-LTE corrections for the Zn I 4722/4810 and 6362 lines (tending to be positive and gradually increasing towards lower [Fe/H]) are quantitatively of less significance (<~ 0.1 dex).Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures, PASJ, Vol. 57, No. 5 (2005) in pres

P-Process Nucleosynthesis inside Supernova-Driven Supercritical Accretion Disks

We investigate p-process nucleosynthesis in a supercritical accretion disk around a compact object of 1.4 M_solar, using the self-similar solution of an optically thick advection dominated flow. Supercritical accretion is expected to occur in a supernova with fallback material accreting onto a new-born compact object. It is found that appreciable amounts of p-nuclei are synthesized via the p-process in supernova-driven supercritical accretion disks (SSADs) when the accretion rate m_dot = M_dot c^2/(16 L_Edd) >10^5, where L_Edd is the Eddington luminosity. Abundance profiles of p-nuclei ejected from SSADs have similar feature to those of the oxygen/neon layers in Type II supernovae when the abundance of the fallback gas far from the compact object is that of the oxygen/neon layers in the progenitor. The overall abundance profile is in agreement with that of the solar system. Some p-nuclei, such as Mo, Ru, Sn, and La, are underproduced in the SSADs as in Type II supernovae. If the fallback gas is mixed with a small fraction of proton through Rayleigh-Taylor instability during the explosion, significant amounts of Mo92 are produced inside the SSADs. Ru96 and La138 are also produced when the fallback gas contains abundant proton though the overall abundance profile of p-nuclei is rather different from that of the solar system. The p-process nucleosynthesis in SSADs contributes to chemical evolution of p-nuclei, in particular Mo92, if several percents of fallback matter are ejected via jets and/or winds.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures included, 3 tables, LaTeX emulateapj5.sty, accepted for publication by the Astronomical Journal (March, 2003