A new URCA process

Details A new URCA process A new URCA process

Mar 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...424..257a&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 424, no. 1, p. 257-262

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

22

Electron Capture, Massive Stars, Nuclear Fusion, Radioactive Decay, Silicon, Abundance, Electron Decay Rate, Stellar Composition, Supernovae

Scientific paper

In the course of a general study of electron capture and beta-decay rates on fp shell nuclei which are abundant after core silicon burning in massive stars, we have found that the Fuller, Fowler, and Newman beta-decay rates are much stronger than generally has been realized. In fact, they can balance the capture rates during the conditions which are prevalent after core silicon burning, resulting in a new Urca process. The strength of the beta-decay rates is a result of thermal population of the Gamow-Teller back resonance in the parent nucleus and the behavior of beta-decay and electron capture Q-values for ensembles of nuclei in nuclear statistical equilibrium. All beta-decay rate tabulations prior to Fuller, Fowler, and Newman neglected the contribution of back resonances and thus drastically underestimated the overall rate. We use a simple analytic model to explain this balancing. The full rates are coupled to a nuclear statistical equilibrium code to demonstrate the strength of the decays. One zone models are used to examine, in a self-consistent fashion, how these rates could affect the presupernova evolution of the iron core and hence the core collapse problem.

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