Uncertainties in the production of p nuclides in thermonuclear supernovae determined by Monte Carlo variations

Nishimura(西村信哉), N; Rauscher, T; Hirschi, R; Murphy, A St J; Cescutti, G; Travaglio, C

Abstract

Thermonuclear supernovae originating from the explosion of a white dwarf accreting mass from a companion star have been suggested as a site for the production of p nuclides. Such nuclei are produced during the explosion, in layers enriched with seed nuclei coming from prior strong s processing. These seeds are transformed into proton-richer isotopes mainly by photodisintegration reactions. Several thousand trajectories from a 2D explosion model were used in a Monte Carlo approach. Temperature-dependent uncertainties were assigned individually to thousands of rates varied simultaneously in post-processing in an extended nuclear reaction network. The uncertainties in the final nuclear abundances originating from uncertainties in
the astrophysical reaction rates were determined. In addition to the 35 classical p nuclides, abundance uncertainties were also determined for the radioactive nuclides 92Nb, 97, 98Tc, 146Sm, and for the abundance ratios Y(92Mo)/Y(94Mo), Y(92Nb)/Y(92Mo), Y(97Tc)/Y(98Ru), Y(98Tc)/Y(98Ru), and Y(146Sm)/Y(144Sm), important for Galactic Chemical Evolution studies.
Uncertainties found were generally lower than a factor of 2, although most nucleosynthesis flows mainly involve predicted rates with larger uncertainties. The main contribution to the total uncertainties comes from a group of trajectories with high peak density originating from the interior of the exploding white dwarf. The distinction between low-density and high-density trajectories allows more general conclusions to be drawn, also applicable to other simulations of white dwarf explosions.

Citation

Nishimura(西村信哉), N., Rauscher, T., Hirschi, R., Murphy, A. S. J., Cescutti, G., & Travaglio, C. (2018). Uncertainties in the production of p nuclides in thermonuclear supernovae determined by Monte Carlo variations. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 474(3), 3133 -3139. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx3033

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 15, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Dec 7, 2017
• Publication Date: 2018-03
• Publicly Available Date: May 26, 2023
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 474
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 3133 -3139
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx3033
• Keywords: nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, abundances, stars, abundances, supernovae, general
• Publisher URL: http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx3033