The elemental abundance pattern in a galaxy at z = 2.626

Jason X. Prochaska (), J. Christopher Howk and Arthur M. Wolfe
Additional contact information
Jason X. Prochaska: University of California
J. Christopher Howk: University of California
Arthur M. Wolfe: University of California

Nature, 2003, vol. 423, issue 6935, 57-59

Abstract: Abstract The discovery of metal-poor stars1,2 (where metal is any element more massive than helium) has enabled astronomers to probe the chemical enrichment history of the Milky Way3,4. More recently, element abundances in gas inside high-redshift galaxies has been probed through the absorption lines imprinted on the spectra of background quasars5,6,7,8, but these have typically yielded measurements of only a few elements. Furthermore, interpretation of these abundances is complicated by the fact that differential incorporation of metals into dust can produce an abundance pattern similar to that expected from nucleosynthesis by massive stars9. Here we report the observation of over 25 elements in a galaxy at redshift z = 2.626. With these data, we can examine nucleosynthetic processes independent of the uncertainty arising from depletion. We find that the galaxy was enriched mainly by massive stars (M > 15 solar masses) and propose that it is the progenitor of a massive elliptical galaxy. The detailed abundance patterns suggest that boron is produced through processes that act independently of metallicity, and may require alternative mechanisms for the nucleosynthesis of germanium.

Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01524 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:423:y:2003:i:6935:d:10.1038_nature01524

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature01524

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().