The lack of carbon stars in the Galactic bulge

Abstract

In order to explain the lack of carbon stars in the Galactic bulge, we have made a detailed study of thermal pulse - asymptotic giant branch stars by using a population synthesis code. The effects of the oxygen overabundance and the mass loss rate on the ratio of the number of carbon stars to that of oxygen stars in the Galactic bulge are discussed. We find that the oxygen overabundance which is about twice as large as that in the solar neighbourhood (close to the present observations) is insufficient to explain the rareness of carbon stars in the bulge. We suggest that the large mass loss rate may serve as a controlling factor in the ratio of the number of carbon stars to that of oxygen stars.