0000000000179074
AUTHOR
I. V. Panov
THE R-PROCESS: SUPERNOVAE AND OTHER SOURCES OF THE HEAVIEST ELEMENTS
Rapid neutron capture in stellar explosions is responsible for the heaviest elements in nature, up to Th , U and beyond. This nucleosynthesis process, the r-process, is unique in the sense that a combination of nuclear physics far from stability (masses, half-lives, neutron-capture and photodisintegration, neutron-induced and beta-delayed fission and last but not least neutrino-nucleus interactions) is intimately linked to ejecta from astrophysical explosions (core collapse supernovae or other neutron star related events). The astrophysics and nuclear physics involved still harbor many uncertainties, either in the extrapolation of nuclear properties far beyond present experimental explorat…
Heavy Elements and Age Determinations
The age of the universe, measured from the Big Bang to the present, is at the focus of cosmology. Its determination relies, however, on the use of stellar objects or their products. Stellar explosions, like type Ia supernovae serve as standard(izable) candles to measure the expansion of the universe. Hertzsprung—Russell diagrams of globular clusters can determine the age of such clusters and thus are lower limits of the age of the galaxy and therefore also the universe. Some nuclear isotopes with half-lives comparable to the age of galaxies (and the universe) can serve as clocks (chronometers) for the duration of nucleosynthesis. The isotopes 238U and 232Th with half-lives of 4.5 × l09 and …
The Role of Fission in the r-process
We have developed a full set of fission rates that include spontaneous fission, neutron-induced fission, beta-delayed fission and, neutrino-induced fission, that are supplemented with realistic distributions of fission yields. Using this new input data we have carried out r-process calculations assuming adiabatic expansions that mimic the conditions achieved in the supernova neutrino driven wind. We have explored the sensitivity of the final abundances to different mass models. The resulting abundance distribution turns out to be very sensitive to the strength of the N = 82 shell gap far from stability. Mass models with a strong shell gap converge to an r-process distribution that is indepe…