https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-023-00988-8
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Production of n-rich nuclei in red giant stars
1
Section of Perugia, INFN, Via A. Pascoli snc, 06123, Perugia, Italy
2
Department of Physics and Geology, University of Perugia, Via A. Pascoli snc, 06123, Perugia, Italy
3
INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, 00078, Monte Porizio Catonie, RM, Italy
Received:
10
February
2023
Accepted:
21
March
2023
Published online:
3
April
2023
We outline a partial historical summary of the steps through which the nucleosynthesis phenomena induced by slow neutron captures (the s-process) were clarified, a scientific achievement in which Franz Käppeler played a major role. We start by recalling the early phenomenological approach, which yielded a basic understanding of the subject even before models for the parent stellar evolutionary stages were developed. Through such a tool, rough limits for the neutron density and exposure were set, and the crucial fact was understood that more than one nucleosynthesis component is required to account for solar abundances of s-process nuclei up to the Pb-Bi region. We then summarize the gradual understanding of the stellar processes actually involved in the production of nuclei from Sr to Pb (the so-called Main Component, achieved in the last decade of the past century and occurring in red giants of low and intermediate mass, M 
8 M
) populating, in the HR diagram, the Asymptotic Giant Branch or AGB region. We conclude by giving some details on more recent research concerning mixing mechanisms inducing the activation of the main neutron source, 
C(
,n)
O.
Busso Maurizio and Palmerini Sara contributed equally to this work.
An erratum to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-023-01020-9.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
