2014/02/26 by Rebecca Surman, Matthew R. Mumpower, R.N. Sinclair +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Engineering · #Nuclear physics research studies #Astronomical and nuclear sciences #Nuclear reactor physics and engineering #Neutron capture #Nucleosynthesis #r-process #Neutron #Context (archaeology) #Sensitivity (control systems) #Abundance (ecology) #Physics #Nuclear astrophysics #Nuclear physics #Nuclear data #Process (computing) #Nuclear reaction #Computer science #Biology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.4867191
openalex publication_date 2014/02/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis involves thousands of nuclear species far from stability, whose nuclear properties need to be understood in order to accurately predict nucleosynthetic outcomes. Recently sensitivity studies have provided a deeper understanding of how the r process proceeds and have identified pieces of nuclear data of interest for further experimental or theoretical study. A key result of these studies has been to point out the importance of individual neutron capture rates in setting the final r-process abundance pattern for a ‘main’ (A ∼ 130 peak and above) r process. Here we examine neutron capture in the context of a ‘weak’ r process that forms primarily the A ∼ 80 r-process abundance peak. We identify the astrophysical conditions required to produce this peak region through weak r-processing and point out the neutron capture rates that most strongly influence the final abundance pattern.