NEW RARE EARTH ELEMENT ABUNDANCE DISTRIBUTIONS FOR THE SUN AND FIVE r-PROCESS-RICH VERY METAL-POOR STARS

We have derived new abundances of the rare earth elements Pr, Dy, Tm, Yb, and Lu for the solar photosphere and for five very metal-poor, neutron-capture r-process-rich giant stars. The photospheric values for all five elements are in good agreement with meteoritic abundances. For the low-metallicity sample, these abundances have been combined with new Ce abundances from a companion paper, and reconsideration of a few other elements in individual stars, to produce internally consistent Ba, rare earth, and Hf (56 ⩽ Z ⩽ 72) element distributions. These have been used in a critical comparison between stellar and solar r-process abundance mixes.