Quantum Dynamical Microscopic Approach to Stellar Carbon Burning

2025/02/16 by Grant Close, Paul Stevenson, Close, Grant +5 · 2 voices · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #nucl-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2025.139881

arxiv published 2025/02/16 · arxiv updated 2025/05/23 · openalex publication_date 2025/09/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/06

Abstract

The process of carbon burning is vital to understanding late stage stellar evolution of massive stars and the conditions of certain supernovae. Carbon burning is a complex problem, involving quantum tunnelling and nuclear molecular states. Quantum dynamical calculations of carbon burning are presented, combining the time-dependent wave-packet method and the density-constrained time-dependent Hartree-Fock (DC-TDHF) approach. By limiting the contribution of triaxial molecular configurations to fusion, we demonstrate that the DC-TDHF interaction potential successfully explains the appearance of some resonant structures in the sub-barrier fusion cross-section. This result shows the critical role of nucleon-nucleon interactions in the 12C + 12C fusion resonances observed at astrophysical energies.

Citations

• In search of beyond mean-field signatures in heavy-ion fusion reactions
• Pairing Effects in Nuclear Fusion Reaction

Cited by

• Thermal effects on stellar neutron capture reactions: a quantum dynamical approach

Discussions

• New preprint day: we calculate the reaction cross sections for carbon-carbon fusion in stars arxiv.org/abs/2502.11240 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
• Final version of C-12 + C-12 fusion paper from student Grant Close published today doi.org/10.1016/j.ph... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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