Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Mar 1982
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1982phdt.........4c&link_type=abstract
Ph.D. Thesis Illinois Univ., Urbana.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
10
Capture Effect, Heavy Nuclei, Nuclear Capture, Stars, Astrophysics, Excitation, Neutron Distribution, Neutrons, Solar System
Scientific paper
A detailed analysis is undertaken of the synthesis of heavy nuclei by slow neutron capture (the s-process) as it is believed to occur in an astrophysically significant environment: intermediate mass, thermally pulsing stars. A superficial study of the physical conditions of such stars appears to indicate a neutron environment inconsistent with the production of s-process nuclei with the relative abundances which are observed in the Solar System. In order to make a comparison with solar abundances, a detailed reaction network is assembled and time integrated in which 432 nuclear species are simulated. It is found that the discrepancy between the abundance distribution of the manufactured nuclei and that observed in the Solar System disappears when additional effects are incorporated which include the time variability of the neutron density and the possibility that the excited states of a handful of nuclei are not in the thermodynamic equilibrium with their ground states. The importance of the time variability of the neutron density means that the basic assumption of constant neutron density, used in the derivation of the classical s-process formalism does not hold in the astrophysically interesting environment found in thermally pulsing stars, thus limiting the use of this formalism in such an environment.
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