Stellar production as a source of 3He in the interstellar medium.
Abstract
Results from a number of Population I and Population II stellar models are presented which confirm that He-3 is produced in substantial quantities in the outer parts of low-mass stars. It is shown that the He-3 is mixed into the convective envelopes when the stars evolve into giants, that much of the He-3 reaches the interstellar medium, and that the low-mass stars alone should enrich that medium to a He-3 abundance greater than the protosolar value. Reasons are examined for the result that the solar-system He-3 abundance is smaller than estimates of the interstellar abundance, and the possibility of using the He-3 abundance as a constraint on cosmological models is considered. It is suggested that the present interstellar He-3 is more of stellar than primordial origin.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- July 1976
- DOI:
- 10.1086/182178
- Bibcode:
- 1976ApJ...207L..57R
- Keywords:
-
- Helium Isotopes;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Nuclear Fusion;
- Planetary Nebulae;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Stellar Models;
- Abundance;
- Cosmology;
- Gas Evolution;
- Stellar Envelopes;
- Stellar Mass;
- Astrophysics