2025/06/18 by A. Psaltis, Psaltis, Athanasios, J. José +5 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #Nuclear Physics and Applications #Nuclear physics research studies #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.15162
openalex publication_date 2025/06/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Classical novae are common cataclysmic events involving a binary system of a white dwarf and a main sequence or red giant companion star. In metal-poor environments, these explosions produce ejecta different from their solar counterparts due to the accretion of sub-solar metallicity material onto the white dwarf. In particular, it has been suggested that the nucleosynthesis flow in such low-metallicity nova explosions extends up to the Cu-Zn region, much beyond the expected endpoint, around Ca, predicted for solar-metallicity classical novae. This behavior resembles a weak rp-process, and such nuclear activity has never been observed in accreting white dwarf binaries with typical accretion flows. In this work, we study the characteristics of the weak rp-process for four nova models with metallicities Z= 2× 10-9, 10-7, 2× 10-6, and 2× 10-5, and explore the impact of the nuclear physics uncertainties via a Monte Carlo sensitivity study. We identify nuclear reactions whose uncertainties affect the production of intermediate-mass nuclei under these conditions. These reactions and relevant nuclear quantities are targets for measurements at stable or radioactive beam facilities to reduce their rate uncertainties.