Heavy Metals Resisting Gravity in White Dwarfs?

摘要

Spectral lines of heavy metals, identilied in high-resolution ultraviolet spectra of the DO-type white dwarf RX J0503.9-2854 (RE 0503-289), allow precise abundance determinations of these species by means of advanced non-local thermodynamic equilibrium stellar-atmosphere models - provided that reliable atomic data is available. Such analyses of Zn (atomic number Z= 30), Ga (31), Ge (32), As (33), Mo (42), Kr (36), Zr (40), Xe (54), and Ba (56) have recently shown that, without exception, their abundances are unexpectedly strongly supersolar (up to about 5 dex). This is much higher than predicted by recent asymptotic giant branch nucleosynthesis calculations. Thus, the interplay of gravitational settling and radiative levitation may play an important role for their photospheric prominence.