2020/09/03 by Guillaumon, Pedro V., Goldman, Iuda D.
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2009.01814
We propose a (p,xn) mechanism with dynamic production as a new set of nuclear reactions that could produce high density neutrons and explain the r- and rp-elements. We calculate the rate of thorium and uranium produced by our proposed mechanism and show that it is compatible with different stellar conditions found in explosive events at an initial temperature of T ≥ 3× 109 K with a "freeze-out" by a neutrino-driven wind. We show that charged particle reactions could explain the discrepancies in the abundances of 232Th and 235,238U nucleochronometers. We extend the endpoint of the rapid proton (rp) process far beyond the previous work by showing that (p,xn) reactions could contribute to the nucleosynthesis of heavy stable neutron deficient nuclides, like 190Pt, 184Os, 180W and 174Hf. This implies in a broader definition of the rp-process and has important consequences for the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements. We show that we did not need to assume an extreme condition for the drip line of super neutron-rich nuclei.