HD 222925: a New Opportunity to Explore the Astrophysical and Nuclear Conditions of r-process Sites

Abstract

With the most trans-iron elements detected of any star outside the Solar System, HD 222925 represents the most complete chemical inventory among r-process-enhanced, metal-poor stars. While the abundance pattern of the heaviest elements identified in HD 222925 agrees with the scaled Solar r-process residuals, as is characteristic of its r-process-enhanced classification, the newly measured lighter r-process elements display marked differences from their Solar counterparts. In this work, we explore which single astrophysical site (if any) produced the entire range of elements ($34\leq Z\leq 90$) present in HD 222925. We find that the abundance pattern of lighter r-process elements newly identified in HD 222925 presents a challenge for our existing nucleosynthesis models to reproduce. The most likely astrophysical explanation for the elemental pattern of HD 222925 is that its light r-process elements were created in rapidly expanding ejecta (e.g., from shocked, dynamical ejecta of compact object merger binaries). However, we find that the light r-process-element pattern can also be successfully reproduced by employing different nuclear mass models, indicating a need for a fresh investigation of nuclear input data for elements with $46\lesssim Z\lesssim 52$ by experimental methods. Either way, the new elemental abundance pattern of HD 222925 -- particularly the abundances obtained from space-based, ultraviolet (UV) data -- call for a deeper understanding of both astrophysical r-process sites and nuclear data. Similar UV observations of additional r-process-enhanced stars will be required to determine whether the elemental abundance pattern of HD 222925 is indeed a canonical template for the r-process at low metallicity.