Rb and Zr abundances in massive Galactic AGB stars revisited

Abstract

We report new abundances of Rb and Zr in a sample of massive Galactic asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars that were previously studied with hydrostatic models by using more realistic dynamical model atmospheres. We use a modified version of the spectral synthesis code Turbospectrum, and consider the presence of a circumstellar envelope and a radial wind in the modelling of these Galactic AGB stars. The Rb and Zr are determined from the 7800 Å Rb I resonant line and the 6474 Å ZrO bandhead, respectively, and they are compared with the AGB nucleosynthesis theoretical predictions. The derived Rb abundances are much lower (∼1-2 dex) with the new dynamical models, while the Zr abundances, however, are closer to the hydrostatic values. The new model atmospheres can help to resolve the problem of the mismatch between the observations and the nucleosynthesis theoretical predictions of massive AGB stars. Show more