The role of binaries in the enrichment of the early Galactic halo

Abstract

Context. The detailed chemical composition of most metal-poor halo stars has been found to be highly uniform, but a minority of stars exhibit dramatic enhancements in their abundances of heavy neutron-capture elements and/or of carbon. The key question for Galactic chemical evolution models is whether these peculiarities reflect the composition of the natal clouds, or if they are due to later (post-birth) mass transfer of chemically processed material from a binary companion. If the former case applies, the observed excess of certain elements was implanted within selected clouds in the early ISM from a production site at interstellar distances.