Si Isotopic Ratios in Mainstream Presolar SiC Grains Revisited

Abstract

Although mainstream SiC grains, the major group of presolar SiC grains found in meteorites, are believed to have originated in the expanding envelope of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars during their late carbon-rich phases, their Si isotopic ratios show a distribution that cannot be explained by nucleosynthesis in this kind of stars. Previously, this distribution has been interpreted to be the result of contributions from many AGB stars of different ages whose initial Si isotopic ratios vary due to the Galactic chemical evolution of the Si isotopes. This paper presents a new interpretation based on local heterogeneities of the Si isotopes in the interstellar medium at the time the parent stars of the mainstream grains were born. Recently, several authors have presented inhomogeneous chemical evolution models of the Galactic disk in order to account for the well known evidence that F and G dwarfs of similar age show an intrinsic scatter in their elemental abundances.