Investigation of the single neutron exposure model for the s-process: the primary nature of the neutron source

The primary nature of the C neutron source is very significant for the studies of the s-process nucleosynthesis. In this paper we present an attempt to fit the element abundances observed in 16 s-rich stars using parametric model of the single neutron exposure. The calculated results indicate that almost all s-elements were made in a single neutron exposure for 9 sample stars. Although a large spread of neutron exposure is obtained, the maximum value of the neutron exposure will reach about 7.0 mbarn, which is close to the theoretical predictions by the AGB model. The calculated result is a significant evidence for the primary nature of the neutron source. Combining the result obtained in this work and the neutron exposure-initial mass relations, a large spread of neutron exposure can be explained by the different initial stellar mass and their time evolution. The possibility that the rotationally induced mixing process can lead to a spread of the neutron exposure in AGB stars is also existent.