Radiative neutron capture reaction rates for r-process nucleosynthesis

Abstract

About half of the elements beyond iron are synthesized in stars by rapid-neutron capture process (r-process). The stellar environment provides very high neutron flux in a short time ($\sim$ seconds) which is conducive for the creation of progressively neutron-rich nuclei till the waiting point is reached after which no further neutron capture reactions proceed. At this point such extremely neutron-rich nuclei become stable via ${\beta }^{-}$ decay. A detailed understanding of the r-process remains illusive. In the present work, we explore the radiative neutron-capture (n,$\gamma$) cross sections and reaction rates around the r-process peak near mass number eighty. The inherent uncertainties remain large in some cases, particularly in case of neutron-rich nuclei. When the low-energy enhancement exists, it results in significant increase in the reaction rate for neutron-capture.

12 pages including 21 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1907.08054

References in corpus (9)

• The r-process of stellar nucleosynthesis: Astrophysics and nuclear physics achievements and mysteries
• Comprehensive nucleosynthesis analysis for ejecta of compact binary mergers
• Magnetorotationally driven Supernovae as the origin of early galaxy $r$-process elements?
• Neutrino-driven winds from neutron star merger remnants
• The rate, luminosity function and time delay of non-Collapsar short GRBs
• Nucleosynthesis-relevant conditions in neutrino-driven supernova outflows. I. Spherically symmetric hydrodynamic simulations
• Novel technique for constraining r-process (n,$\gamma$) reaction rates
• Dynamics of shock propagation and nucleosynthesis conditions in O-Ne-Mg core supernovae
• A Long, Cold, Early r-process? Neutrino-induced Nucleosynthesis in He Shells Revisited