Population nucleosynthesis in single and binary stars

I. Model

¹ Sterrekundig Instituut Utrecht, Postbus 80000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands e-mail: R.G.Izzard@phys.uu.nl
² Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK
⁴ Origins Institute and Department of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W., Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada

Received: 28 July 2006
Accepted: 8 September 2006

Abstract

We present a synthetic algorithm to rapidly calculate nucleosynthetic yields from populations of single and binary stars for use in population synthesis, globular cluster and Galactic chemical evolution simulations. Single star nucleosynthesis is fitted directly to full evolution models and our model includes first, second and third dredge-ups with s-process enhancements, an analytic calculation for hot-bottom burning of CNO, NeNa and MgAl isotopes, surface enhancements due to wind loss in massive stars and core-collapse supernova yields. Even though this algorithm operates about 10⁷ times faster than full evolution and nucleosynthesis calculations, agreement with such models is good. We extend the single star model to include prescriptions of binary star interactions, notably mass loss and gain by stellar winds and Roche-lobe overflow, novae and type Ia supernovae. As examples of the application of our algorithm we present models of some interesting systems containing chemically peculiar stars that may occur in binaries.