2014MNRAS.443.2426N

Historically, Ge has been considered to be a neutron-capture element. In this case, the r-process abundance of Ge is derived by subtracting the s-process abundance from the total abundance in the Solar system. However, the Ge abundance of the metal-poor star HD 108317 is lower than that of the scaled `residual r-process abundance' in the Solar system, about 1.2 dex. In this paper, based on a comparison of the Ge abundances of metal-poor stars and stellar yields, we find that the Ge abundances are not the result of the primary-like yields in massive stars and come mainly from the r-process. Based on the observed abundances of metal-poor stars, we derived the Ge abundances of the weak r-process and main r-process. The contributed percentage of the neutron-capture process to Ge in the Solar system is about 59 percent, which means that the contributed percentage of the Ge `residual abundance' in the Solar system is about 41 percent. We find that the Ge `residual abundance' is produced as secondary-like yields in massive stars. This implies that the element Ge in the Solar system is not produced solely by the neutron-capture process.