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Title: The impact of (n, γ ) reaction rate uncertainties of unstable isotopes near N = 50 on the i-process nucleosynthesis in He-shell flash white dwarfs

Journal Article · · Journal of Physics. G, Nuclear and Particle Physics
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3];  [1]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [6];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Victoria, BC (Canada). Dept. of Physics & Astronomy; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics, Center for the Evolution of the Elements
  2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics, Center for the Evolution of the Elements; Central Michigan Univ., Mount Pleasant, MI (United States). Dept. of Physics and Physical Sciences Program; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab.
  3. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics, Center for the Evolution of the Elements; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab.; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
  4. Univ. of Hull, Hull (United Kingdom). E.A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics, Dept. of Physics & Mathematics; Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest (Hungary). Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences
  5. Heidelberg Inst. for Theoretical Studies, Heidelberg, (Germany); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  6. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Joint Inst. for Nuclear Astrophysics, Center for the Evolution of the Elements; Central Michigan Univ., Mount Pleasant, MI (United States). Dept. of Physics and Physical Sciences Program

The first-peak s-process elements Rb, Sr, Y and Zr in the post-AGB star Sakurai's object (V4334 Sagittarii) have been proposed to be the result of i-process nucleosynthesis in a post-AGB very-late thermal pulse event. We estimate the nuclear physics uncertainties in the i-process model predictions to determine whether the remaining discrepancies with observations are significant and point to potential issues with the underlying astrophysical model. We find that the dominant source in the nuclear physics uncertainties are predictions of neutron capture rates on unstable neutron rich nuclei, which can have uncertainties of more than a factor 20 in the band of the i-process. We use a Monte Carlo variation of 52 neutron capture rates and a 1D multi-zone post-processing model for the i-process in Sakurai's object to determine the cumulative effect of these uncertainties on the final elemental abundance predictions. We find that the nuclear physics uncertainties are large and comparable to observational errors. Within these uncertainties the model predictions are consistent with observations. A correlation analysis of the results of our MC simulations reveals that the strongest impact on the predicted abundances of Rb, Sr, Y and Zr is made by the uncertainties in the (n, γ) reaction rates of 85Br, 86Br, 87Kr, 88Kr, 89Kr, 89Rb, 89Sr, and 92Sr. This conclusion is supported by a series of multi-zone simulations in which we increased and decreased to their maximum and minimum limits one or two reaction rates per run. We also show that simple and fast one-zone simulations should not be used instead of more realistic multi-zone stellar simulations for nuclear sensitivity and uncertainty studies of convective–reactive processes. Lastly, our findings apply more generally to any i-process site with similar neutron exposure, such as rapidly accreting white dwarfs with near-solar metallicities.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Contributing Organization:
NuGrid Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1492608
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-21509
Journal Information:
Journal of Physics. G, Nuclear and Particle Physics, Vol. 45, Issue 5; ISSN 0954-3899
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (7)

The i-process yields of rapidly accreting white dwarfs from multicycle He-shell flash stellar evolution models with mixing parametrizations from 3D hydrodynamics simulations journal July 2019
Neutron Star Mergers Might Not Be the Only Source of r -process Elements in the Milky Way journal April 2019
Remnants and ejecta of thermonuclear electron-capture supernovae: Constraining oxygen-neon deflagrations in high-density white dwarfs journal January 2019
The impact of (n,γ) reaction rate uncertainties on the predicted abundances of i-process elements with 32 ≤ Z ≤ 48 in the metal-poor star HD94028 journal December 2019
Learning about the Intermediate Neutron-capture Process from Lead Abundances journal December 2019
The i-process yields of rapidly-accreting white dwarfs from multicycle He-shell flash stellar evolution models with mixing parameterizations from 3D hydrodynamics simulations text January 2018
Remnants and ejecta of thermonuclear electron-capture supernovae: Constraining oxygen-neon deflagrations in high-density white dwarfs text January 2018

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