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

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 to 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 ${}^{92}$Nb, ${}^{97,98}$Tc, ${}^{146}$Sm, and for the abundance ratios $Y$(${}^{92}$Mo)/$Y$(${}^{94}$Mo), $Y$(${}^{92}$Nb)/$Y$(${}^{92}$Mo), $Y$(${}^{97}$Tc)/$Y$(${}^{98}$Ru), $Y$(${}^{98}$Tc)/$Y$(${}^{98}$Ru), and $Y$(${}^{146}$Sm)/$Y$(${}^{144}$Sm), important for Galactic Chemical Evolution studies. Uncertainties found were generally lower than a factor of two, 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.

8 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, MNRAS; minor revisions to match published version

References in corpus (5)

• Extension of the MURaM radiative MHD code for coronal simulations
• Databases and tools for nuclear astrophysics applications BRUSsels Nuclear LIBrary (BRUSLIB), Nuclear Astrophysics Compilation of REactions II (NACRE II) and Nuclear NETwork GENerator (NETGEN)
• Survival of Nature's Rarest Isotope 180Ta under Stellar Conditions
• Testing the role of SNe Ia for Galactic chemical evolution of p-nuclei with 2D models and with s-process seeds at different metallicities
• Radiogenic p-isotopes from SNIa, nuclear physics uncertainties and Galactic chemical evolution compared with values in primitive meteorites

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Approaching the Gamow window with stored ions: Direct measurement of ${}^{124}$Xe(p,$\gamma$) in the ESR storage ring
• Horizons: Nuclear Astrophysics in the 2020s and Beyond
• Successful prediction of total $\alpha$-induced reaction cross sections at astrophysically relevant sub-Coulomb energies using a novel approach
• The $\gamma$-process nucleosynthesis in core-collapse supernovae. I. A novel analysis of $\gamma$-process yields in massive stars
• r-Process Radioisotopes from Near-Earth Supernovae and Kilonovae
• Heavy Elements Nucleosynthesis On Accreting White Dwarfs: building seeds for the p-process
• First Direct Measurement of an Astrophysical p-Process Reaction Cross Section Using a Radioactive Ion Beam
• Cross section of $\alpha$-induced reactions on ${}^{197}$Au at sub-Coulomb energies
• Measurements of ${}^{160}$Dy($p,\gamma$) at energies relevant for astrophysical $\gamma$ process
• Feasibility of studying astrophysically important charged-particle emission with the variable energy $\gamma$-ray system at the Extreme Light Infrastructure -- Nuclear Physics facility
• Observational constraints on the origin of the elements. VI. Origin and evolution of neutron-capture elements as probed by the Gaia-ESO survey
• Cross Sections of the ${}^{83}$Rb(p,$\gamma {)}^{84}$Sr and ${}^{84}$Kr(p,$\gamma {)}^{85}$Rb Reactions at Energies Characteristic of the Astrophysical $\gamma$ Process
• Cross Section Measurement of the ${}^{82}$Kr(p,$\gamma$)${}^{83}$Rb Reaction in Inverse Kinematics
• Measurement of the 91Zr(p,gamma)92mNb cross section motivated by type Ia supernova nucleosynthesis
• Abundances of disk and bulge giants from high-resolution optical spectra V. Molybdenum -- the p-process element
• Neutrinos and Heavy Element Nucleosynthesis
• Determination of ${}^{170,172}$Yb($\alpha ,n$)${}^{173,175}$Hf reaction cross sections in a stacked-target experiment
• Precision mass measurement of ${}^{173}$Hf for nuclear structure of ${}^{173}$Lu and the $\gamma$ process
• Uncertainties in the production of iron-group nuclides in core-collapse supernovae from Monte Carlo variations of reaction rates