Abstract:
Barium stars are one of the important probes to understand the o
rigin and evolution of
slow neutron-capture process elements in the Galaxy. These are e
xtrinsic stars, where
the observed s-process element abundances are believed to have
an origin in the now
invisible companions that produced these elements at their Asympto
tic Giant Branch
phase of evolution. We have attempted to understand the s-proc
ess nucleosynthesis,
as well as the physical properties of the companion stars through
a detailed compar-
ison of observed elemental abundances of 10 barium stars with the
predictions from
AGB nucleosynthesis models, FRUITY. For these stars, we have pr
esented estimates
of abundances of several elements, C, N, O, Na, Al,
α
-elements, Fe-peak elements
and neutron-capture elements Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Ba, La, Ce, Pr, Nd,
Sm and Eu. The
abundance estimates are based on high resolution spectral analys
is. Observations of
Rb in four of these stars have allowed us to put a limit to the mass of th
e companion
AGB stars. Our analysis clearly shows that the former companions r
esponsible for
the surface abundance peculiarities of these stars are low-mass A
GB stars. Kinematic
analysis have shown the stars to be members of Galactic disk populat
ion.
