Neutrinoless ββ\beta\beta decay nuclear matrix elements in an isotopic chain

We analyze nuclear matrix elements (NME) of neutrinoless double beta decay calculated for the Cadmium isotopes. Energy density functional methods including beyond mean field effects such as symmetry restoration and shape mixing are used. Strong shell effects are found associated to the underlying nuclear structure of the initial and final nuclei. Furthermore, we show that NME for two-neutrino double beta decay evaluated in the closure approximation, $M^{2\nu}_{\mathrm{cl}}$, display a constant proportionality with respect to the Gamow-Teller part of the neutrinoless NME, $M^{0\nu}_{\mathrm{GT}}$. This opens the possibility of determining the $M^{0\nu}_{\mathrm{GT}}$ matrix elements from $\beta^{\mp}$ Gamow-Teller strength functions. Finally, the interconnected role of deformation, pairing, configuration mixing and shell effects in the NMEs is discussed

Supernova neutrinos and nucleosynthesis

Observations of metal-poor stars indicate that at least two different nucleosynthesis sites contribute to the production of r-process elements. One site is responsible for the production of light r-process elements Z<~50 while the other produces the heavy r-process elements. We have analyzed recent observations of metal-poor stars selecting only stars that are enriched in light r-process elements and poor in heavy r-process elements. We find a strong correlation between the observed abundances of the N=50 elements (Sr, Y and Zr) and Fe. It suggest that neutrino-driven winds from core-collapse supernova are the main site for the production of these elements. We explore this possibility by performing nucleosynthesis calculations based on long term Boltzmann neutrino transport simulations. They are based on an Equation of State that reproduces recent constrains on the nuclear symmetry energy. We predict that the early ejecta is neutron-rich with Ye ~ 0.48, it becomes proton rich around 4 s and reaches Ye = 0.586 at 9 s when our simulation stops. The nucleosynthesis in this model produces elements between Zn and Mo, including 92Mo. The elemental abundances are consistent with the observations of the metal-poor star HD 12263. For the elements between Ge and Mo, we produce mainly the neutron-deficient isotopes. This prediction can be confirmed by observations of isotopic abundances in metal-poor stars. No elements heavier than Mo (Z=42) and no heavy r-process elements are produced in our calculations.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. (Focus issue "Nucleosynthesis and the role of neutrinos", ed. Baha Balantekin and Cristina Volpe

Neutrino-nucleus reactions and their role for supernova dynamics and nucleosynthesis

The description of nuclear reactions induced by supernova neutrinos has witnessed significant progress during the recent years. At the energies and momentum transfers relevant for supernova neutrinos neutrino-nucleus cross sections are dominated by allowed transitions, however, often with non-negligible contributions from (first) forbidden transitions. For several nuclei allowed Gamow-Teller strength distributions could be derived from charge-exchange reactions and from inelastic electron scattering data. Importantly the diagonalization shell model has been proven to accurately describe these data and hence became the appropriate tool to calculate the allowed contributions to neutrino-nucleus cross sections for supernova neutrinos. Higher multipole contributions are usually calculated within the framework of the Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation, which describes the total strength and the position of the giant resonances quite well. This manuscript reviews the recent progress achieved in calculating supernova-relevant neutrino-nucleus cross sections and discusses its verification by data. Moreover, the review summarizes also the impact which neutrino-nucleus reactions have on the dynamics of supernovae and on the associated nucleosynthesis. These include the absorption of neutrinos by nuclei (the inverse of nuclear electron capture which is the dominating weak-interaction process during collapse), inelastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and nuclear de-excitation by neutrino-pair emission. We also discuss the role of neutrino-induced reactions for the recently discovered $\nu p$ process, for the r-process and for the neutrino process, for which neutrino-nucleus reactions have the largest impact. Finally, we briefly review neutrino-nucleus reactions important for the observation of supernova neutrinos by earthbound detectors. (Abridged)Comment: 77 pages, 29 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physic

Systematic study of infrared energy corrections in truncated oscillator spaces

We study the convergence properties of nuclear binding energies and two-neutron separation energies obtained with self-consistent mean-field calculations based on the Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov (HFB) method with Gogny-type effective interactions. Owing to lack of convergence in a truncated working basis, we employ and benchmark one of the recently proposed infrared energy correction techniques to extrapolate our results to the limit of an infinite model space. We also discuss its applicability to global calculations of nuclear masses.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure

Neutrino–nucleus reactions and nuclear structure

The methods used in the evaluation of the neutrino–nucleus cross section are reviewed. Results are shown for a variety of targets of practical importance. Many of the described reactions are accessible in future experiments with neutrino sources from the pion and muon decays at rest, which might be available at the neutron spallation facilities. Detailed comparison between the experimental and theoretical results would establish benchmarks needed for verification and/or parameter adjustment of the nuclear models. Having a reliable tool for such calculation is of great importance in a variety of applications, e.g. the neutrino oscillation studies, detection of supernova neutrinos, description of the neutrino transport in supernovae and description of the r-process nucleosynthesis

Neutrino Nucleosynthesis of radioactive nuclei in supernovae

We study the neutrino-induced production of nuclides in explosive supernova nucleosynthesis for progenitor stars with solar metallicity and initial main sequence masses between 15 M$_\odot$ and 40 M$_\odot$. We improve previous investigations i) by using a global set of partial differential cross sections for neutrino-induced charged- and neutral-current reactions on nuclei with charge numbers $Z < 76$ and ii) by considering modern supernova neutrino spectra which have substantially lower average energies compared to those previously adopted in neutrino nucleosynthesis studies. We confirm the production of $^7$Li, $^{11}$B, $^{138}$La, and $^{180}$Ta by neutrino nucleosynthesis, albeit at slightly smaller abundances due to the changed neutrino spectra. We find that for stars with a mass smaller than 20 M$_\odot$, $^{19}$F is produced mainly by explosive nucleosynthesis while for higher mass stars it is produced by the $\nu$ process. We also find that neutrino-induced reactions, either directly or indirectly by providing an enhanced abundance of light particles, noticeably contribute to the production of the radioactive nuclides $^{22}$Na and $^{26}$Al. Both nuclei are prime candidates for gamma-ray astronomy. Other prime targets, $^{44}$Ti and $^{60}$Fe, however, are insignificantly produced by neutrino-induced reactions. We also find a large increase in the production of the long-lived nuclei $^{92}$Nb and $^{98}$Tc due to charged-current neutrino capture.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 2 table