{
  "abstract": "Stars enhanced in heavy neutron capture elements like europium (Eu) provide a window into the rarest and most exotic nucleosynthetic events. Most Eu-enhanced stars discovered thus far are found among metal-poor populations, with $\\mathrm{[Fe/H]}<-1.0$. Here, we report the discovery of $17$ vetted Eu-enhanced stars ($\\mathrm{[Eu/Fe]}>0.7$) in the Milky Way disk with metallicities in the range $-0.87<\\mathrm{[Fe/H]}<-0.21$ identified from among $74\\,717$ stars in the GALAH survey. 14 of these stars additionally have $\\mathrm{[Ba/Eu]}<0$, marking enhancement from the rapid neutron capture ($r$-) process and making these r-II stars. Included in their number is a star with a remarkably high $\\mathrm{[Eu/H]}=1.01\\pm0.09$ at $\\mathrm{[Fe/H]}=-0.21$. In addition to Eu, all 17 stars show enhancements in other neutron capture elements, especially in Nd, while otherwise appearing chemically consistent with typical disk stars, particularly in their $α$-element abundances. Two of the Eu-enhanced stars exhibit indications of binarity with strong enrichment in Ba and Y, marking potential signatures of the slow or intermediate neutron capture processes. This sample of 17 Eu-enhanced stars, which span both the high- and low-$α$ disks, are valuable tracers of neutron capture processes, including the $r$-process, at high metallicities. Although we use criteria for Eu-enhanced stars typically applied to the halo to enable comparison to literature studies of $r$-process enhanced stars, we propose a new, metallicity-dependent selection for Eu enhancement that is better-suited to the regime of the Galactic disk.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.36013",
  "author_total": 12,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Sarah G. Kane"
    },
    {
      "name": "Stephanie Monty"
    },
    {
      "name": "Madeleine McKenzie"
    },
    {
      "name": "HanYuan Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sven Buder"
    },
    {
      "name": "Terese Hansen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tadafumi Matsuno"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jason Sanders"
    },
    {
      "name": "Anke Ardern-Arentsen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Vasily Belokurov"
    },
    {
      "name": "Zofia Kaczmarek"
    },
    {
      "name": "Andrew Garner"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9dx2spprab2h3.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.36013",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9dx2spprab2h3",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.36013",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.GA"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214966833",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.36013",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-28",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9dx2spprab2h3.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:31Z",
      "native_id": "2609.36013",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.36013"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.GA",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Snapshots of r-process production in the Milky Way disk",
  "title_text": "Snapshots of r-process production in the Milky Way disk",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:31Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9dx2spprab2h3",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}