The SPAr burning: proton captures powering carbon-oxygen shell mergers in massive stars

Abstract

Carbon-oxygen (C-O) shell mergers in massive stars play a crucial role in both nucleosynthesis and the final stages of stellar evolution. These convective-reactive events significantly alter the internal structure of the star shortly before core collapse. We investigate how the enhanced production of light particles (especially protons) during a C-O shell merger, relative to classical oxygen shell burning, affects the energy balance and evolution of the convective shell. We derive the budget for direct and reverse nucleosynthesis flows across all relevant nuclear reactions from stellar evolution models, and we assess the relative energy produced. We find that proton capture reactions on 32,34S, 31P, and 38Ar (SPAr) dominate the nuclear energy production in typical C-O shell mergers as predicted by 1D stellar models. Their combined energy output is approximately 400 times greater than that of C and O fusion under the same conditions. Our results highlight the critical importance of including these proton-capture reactions in simulations of convective-reactive burning. This work suggests that excluding their contribution can lead to inaccurate modeling of the dynamics and nucleosynthesis in advanced stellar evolutionary phases. Such results will need to be confirmed by new 1D stellar simulations and 3D hydrodynamics models.

Accepted for publication in A&A Letters. 9 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Production of heavy $\alpha$-elements and ${}^{44}$Ti in Cas A: comparison to abundances from 1D core-collapse supernova models and evidence for Carbon-Oxygen shell mergers