Other
Scientific paper
May 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996aps..may..f403s&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, APS/AAPT Joint Meeting, May 2-5, 1996, abstract #F4.03
Other
Scientific paper
A nova outburst is the consequence of the accretion of hydrogen rich material onto a white dwarf and is the largest hydrogen powered explosion in the Universe. The fuel is supplied by the secondary star in a close binary system while the strong electron degeneracy of the massive white dwarf acts as a container for the gas during the early stages of the explosion. Because the gas cannot expand until nearly the peak of the explosion, the temperature in the nuclear burning region will exceed 10^8K under all circumstances. As a result a major fraction of the CNO nuclei in the envelope are transformed into β^+-unstable nuclei. I will discuss the effects on the evolution of the presence of these nuclei in the thermonuclear burning region. Recent observational studies have shown that there are two classes of novae; one which occurs on a white dwarf with a core composition of carbon and oxygen, and a second class that occurs on a white dwarf with a core consisting of oxygen, neon, and magnesium. In my talk I will concentrate on the latter class since these novae are predicted to produce the most interesting nucleosynthesis. I will report on hydrodynamic calculations that examine the consequences of the accretion process on 1.0M_solar, 1.25M_solar, and 1.35M_solar white dwarfs and which predict that novae can produce ^22Na, ^26Al, and other intermediate mass nuclei in interesting amounts. I will then discuss the results of new observational determinations of nova abundances which demonstrate that the predicted nucleosynthesis is occurring in the explosion. Finally, I will present the results of recent calculations, done with updated nuclear reaction rates and opacities, and discuss the causes of the quantitative differences with respect to published work.
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