Thesiss

Nucleosynthesis by rapid neutron capture—the r -process—accounts for the production of roughly half of the heavy elements in the Solar System. Not only are these heavy elements found locally, but they are also found in very old, chemically simple stars, providing evidence that t…

This thesis reports the isotopic compositions of different elements in a large number of presolar SiC and oxide grains in order to further increase our knowledge of nucleosynthesis in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, the chemical evolution of the galaxy, and the lifetimes of…