Hydrogen burning of ${}^{29}$Si and its impact on presolar stardust grains from classical novae

Abstract

Presolar stardust grains found in primitive meteorites are believed to retain the isotopic composition of stellar outflows at the time of grain condensation. Therefore, laboratory measurements of their isotopic ratios represent sensitive probes for investigating open questions related to stellar evolution, stellar explosions, nucleosynthesis, mixing mechanisms, dust formation, and galactic chemical evolution. For a few selected presolar grains, classical novae have been discussed as a potential source. For SiC, silicate, and graphite presolar grains, the association is based on the observation of small $N{(}^{12}$C)/$N{(}^{13}$C) and $N{(}^{14}$N)/$N{(}^{15}$N) number abundance ratios compared to solar values, and abundance excesses in ${}^{30}$Si relative to ${}^{29}$Si, as previously predicted by models of classical novae. We report on a direct measurement of the ${}^{29}$Si(p,$\gamma$)${}^{30}$P reaction, which strongly impacts simulated ${\delta }^{29}$Si values from classical novae. Our new experimental ${}^{29}$Si(p,$\gamma$)${}^{30}$P thermonuclear reaction rate differs from previous results by up to 50\% in the classical nova temperature range ($T$ $=$ $100$ $-$ $400$~MK), while the rate uncertainty is reduced by up to a factor of $3$. Using our new reaction rate in Monte Carlo reaction network and hydrodynamic simulations of classical novae, we estimate ${\delta }^{29}$Si values with much reduced uncertainties. Our results establish ${\delta }^{29}$Si values measured in presolar grains as a sensitive probe for assessing their classical nova paternity. We also demonstrate that ${\delta }^{30}$Si values from nova simulations are presently not a useful diagnostic tool unless the large uncertainty of the ${}^{30}$P(p,$\gamma$)${}^{31}$S reaction rate can be significantly reduced.

arXiv comment5 figures

References in corpus (20)

• Charged-Particle Thermonuclear Reaction Rates: II. Tables and Graphs of Reaction Rates and Probability Density Functions
• The Effects of Thermonuclear Reaction Rate Variations on Nova Nucleosynthesis: A Sensitivity Study
• STARLIB: A Next-Generation Reaction-Rate Library for Nuclear Astrophysics
• Presolar Grains from Novae
• The Imprint of Nova Nucleosynthesis in Presolar Grains
• Charged-Particle Thermonuclear Reaction Rates: I. Monte Carlo Method and Statistical Distributions
• Charged-Particle Thermonuclear Reaction Rates: III. Nuclear Physics Input
• Synthesis of intermediate-mass elements in classical novae: from Si to Ca
• Automated NanoSIMS Measurements of Spinel Stardust from the Murray Meteorite
• Stellar Origins of Extremely ${}^{\text{13}}C$- and ${}^{15}N$-enriched Presolar SiC Grains: Novae or Supernovae?
• Nuclear Thermometers for Classical Novae
• 123-321 Models of Classical Novae
• Charged-Particle Thermonuclear Reaction Rates: IV. Comparison to Previous Work
• Statistical Methods for Thermonuclear Reaction Rates and Nucleosynthesis Simulations
• Isospin Mixing Reveals ${}^{30}$P($p,\gamma$)${}^{31}$S Resonance Influencing Nova Nucleosynthesis
• On Presolar Stardust Grains from CO Classical Novae
• Condensation of SiC Stardust in CO Nova Outbursts
• Reaction rate uncertainties and 26Al in AGB silicon carbide stardust
• Three-dimensional simulations of the interaction between the nova ejecta, the accretion disk, and the companion star
• $\gamma$-ray Spectroscopy using a Binned Likelihood Approach

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Nuclear astrophysics
• The 2025 Evaluation of Experimental Thermonuclear Reaction Rates (ETR25)