Sulfur isotopes ratios
Interstellar sulfur isotopes and stellar oxygen burning

Y.-N. Chin
Radioastronomisches Institut der Universität Bonn
Auf dem Hügel 71, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
C. Henkel
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
J.B. Whiteoak
Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO Radiophysics Labs.
P.O. Box 76, Epping, NSW 2121, Australia
N. Langer
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik
Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85740 Garching, Germany
E.B. Churchwell
University of Wisconsin, Astronomy Department
475 N. Charter St., Madison, WI 53706, USA

Paper published in January 1996 by the Main Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics in vol. 305, pp. 960 - 969. If you want to have a look at the complete paper please click here (PostScript file of 2043011 bytes) or here (gzip-compressed PostScript file of 1654752 bytes).
Abstract. A 12C32S, 13C32S, 12C34S, and 12C33S J=2-1 line survey has been made to study interstellar 32S/34S and 34S/33S ratios from the galactic disk. The four CS isotopomers were detected in 20 star forming regions with galactocentric distances between 3 and 9 kpc. From a comparison of line velocities, the C33S J=2-1 rest frequency is about 250 kHz below the value given in the Lovas (1992) catalog. Taking 12C/13C ratios from Wilson & Rood (1994) and assuming equal 12C32S and 13C32S excitation temperatures and beam filling factors, 12C32S opacities are in the range 3 to 15; average 32S/34S and 34S/33S isotope ratios are 24.4 ± 5.0 and 6.27 ± 1.01, respectively. While no systematic variation in the 34S/33S isotope ratio is found, the 32S/34S ratio increases with galactocentric distance when accounting for the 12C/13C gradient of the galactic disk. A fit to the unweighted data yields 32S/34S = 3.3 ± 0.5 (dGC/kpc) + 4.1 ± 3.1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.84. Since the interstellar sulfur (S) isotopes are synthesized by oxygen burning in massive stars, consequences for nucleosynthesis and models of chemical evolution are briefly discussed.

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