Talk:s-process

Changed red giant

The problem is that red giant stars where the S-process occurs are not necessarily more massive than the sun. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Roadrunner (talk • contribs) 19:09, 22 December 2006 (UTC).

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 :=Why did the S-process stop after having made the three stable isotopes EE82Pb204 (+40 extra N), EE82Pb206, (+42 extra N), and EEPb208 (+44 extra N), when it then could have gone on to 84Po and made the stable isotopes EE84Po208, (+40 extra N), EE84Po210 (+42 extra N), and EE84Po212 (+44 extra N), And maybe even to stable EE isotopes of 86Rn. Note that element 54Xe, which is just above 86Rn in the periodic table, has 7 stable EE isotopes. WFPM (talk • contribs) 03:31, 4 November 2008

expanded red link for line of beta-decay stability Puzl bustr (talk) 20:49, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

If this process produces all the elements up to polonium, what about the elements after polonium? ²³¹₉₁Pa (chat me, but mind the alphas!) 05:29, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Radon and Polonium are not stable and are likely to decay before the s-process can push it along so the line stops at lead. You need the r-process to go further. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 08:16, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

As it turns out, even getting past ²⁰⁸Pb is challenging, because it's hard to get that doubly-magic nucleus to capture another neutron beyond the closed shell. So there is even very little alpha-recycling (the branch going to polonium and back) going on. Double sharp (talk) 07:56, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

(Also ²¹⁰Po might just survive long enough to capture another neutron, but ²¹¹Po is much shorter-lived and even more surely won't: it'll just alpha decay.) Double sharp (talk) 10:53, 31 January 2025 (UTC)