The r-process nucleosynthesis during the decompression of neutronised matter

Journal Article · Fri Oct 28 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3628361· OSTI ID:21612123

Goriely, S; Chamel, N ^[1]; Pearson, J M ^[2]

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1. IAA-ULB, Campus de la Plaine, CP 226, 1050 Brussels (Belgium)
2. Dept. de Physique, Universite de Montreal, Montreal (Quebec), H3C 3J7 (Canada)

The rapid neutron-capture process, or r-process, is known to be of fundamental importance for explaining the origin of approximately half of the A>60 stable nuclei observed in nature. In recent years nuclear astrophysicists have developed more and more sophisticated r-process models, eagerly trying to add new astrophysical or nuclear physics ingredients to explain the solar system composition in a satisfactory way.We show here that the decompression of the neutron star matter may provide suitable conditions for a robust r-processing. After decompression, the inner crust material gives rise to an abundance distribution for A>130 nuclei similar to the one observed in the solar system. Similarly, the outer crust if heated at a temperature of about 8 10{sup 9} K before decompression is made of exotic neutron-rich nuclei with a mass distribution close to the 80{<=}A{<=}130 solar one. During the decompression, the free neutrons (initially liberated by the high temperatures) are re-captured leading to a final pattern similar to the solar system distribution.

• OSTI ID: 21612123
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1377, Issue 1; Conference: FINUSTAR 3 Conference on frontiers in nuclear structure, astrophysics, and reactions, Rhodes (Greece), 23-27 Aug 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3628361; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
CAPTURE
ELEMENT ABUNDANCE
FAST NEUTRONS
INTERMEDIATE MASS NUCLEI
MASS DISTRIBUTION
NEUTRON REACTIONS
NEUTRON STARS
NEUTRON-RICH ISOTOPES
NUCLEAR MATTER
NUCLEAR TEMPERATURE
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
R PROCESS
SOLAR SYSTEM
THERMODYNAMICS
ABUNDANCE
BARYON REACTIONS
BARYONS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
DISTRIBUTION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EVOLUTION
FERMIONS
HADRON REACTIONS
HADRONS
ISOTOPES
MATTER
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEI
NUCLEON REACTIONS
NUCLEONS
PHYSICS
RADIOISOTOPES
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
SYNTHESIS