3,191 research outputs found
Nucleosynthesis Basics and Applications to Supernovae
This review concentrates on nucleosynthesis processes in general and their
applications to massive stars and supernovae. A brief initial introduction is
given to the physics in astrophysical plasmas which governs composition
changes. We present the basic equations for thermonuclear reaction rates and
nuclear reaction networks. The required nuclear physics input for reaction
rates is discussed, i.e. cross sections for nuclear reactions,
photodisintegrations, electron and positron captures, neutrino captures,
inelastic neutrino scattering, and beta-decay half-lives. We examine especially
the present state of uncertainties in predicting thermonuclear reaction rates,
while the status of experiments is discussed by others in this volume (see M.
Wiescher). It follows a brief review of hydrostatic burning stages in stellar
evolution before discussing the fate of massive stars, i.e. the nucleosynthesis
in type II supernova explosions (SNe II). Except for SNe Ia, which are
explained by exploding white dwarfs in binary stellar systems (which will not
be discussed here), all other supernova types seem to be linked to the
gravitational collapse of massive stars (M8M) at the end of their
hydrostatic evolution. SN1987A, the first type II supernova for which the
progenitor star was known, is used as an example for nucleosynthesis
calculations. Finally, we discuss the production of heavy elements in the
r-process up to Th and U and its possible connection to supernovae.Comment: 52 pages, 20 figures, uses cupconf.sty (included); to appear in
"Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics", eds. J. Hirsch., D. Page, Cambridge
University Pres
Development of Muon Drift-Tube Detectors for High-Luminosity Upgrades of the Large Hadron Collider
The muon detectors of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have
to cope with unprecedentedly high neutron and gamma ray background rates. In
the forward regions of the muon spectrometer of the ATLAS detector, for
instance, counting rates of 1.7 kHz/square cm are reached at the LHC design
luminosity. For high-luminosity upgrades of the LHC, up to 10 times higher
background rates are expected which require replacement of the muon chambers in
the critical detector regions. Tests at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility
showed that drift-tube detectors with 15 mm diameter aluminum tubes operated
with Ar:CO2 (93:7) gas at 3 bar and a maximum drift time of about 200 ns
provide efficient and high-resolution muon tracking up to the highest expected
rates. For 15 mm tube diameter, space charge effects deteriorating the spatial
resolution at high rates are strongly suppressed. The sense wires have to be
positioned in the chamber with an accuracy of better than 50 ?micons in order
to achieve the desired spatial resolution of a chamber of 50 ?microns up to the
highest rates. We report about the design, construction and test of prototype
detectors which fulfill these requirements
alpha-nucleus potentials for the neutron-deficient p nuclei
alpha-nucleus potentials are one important ingredient for the understanding
of the nucleosynthesis of heavy neutron-deficient p nuclei in the astrophysical
gamma-process where these p nuclei are produced by a series of (gamma,n),
(gamma,p), and (gamma,alpha) reactions. I present an improved alpha-nucleus
potential at the astrophysically relevant sub-Coulomb energies which is derived
from the analysis of alpha decay data and from a previously established
systematic behavior of double-folding potentials.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Astrophysical S-factors for fusion reactions involving C, O, Ne and Mg isotopes
Using the Sao Paulo potential and the barrier penetration formalism we have
calculated the astrophysical factor S(E) for 946 fusion reactions involving
stable and neutron-rich isotopes of C, O, Ne, and Mg for center-of-mass
energies E varying from 2 MeV to 18-30 MeV (covering the range below and above
the Coulomb barrier). We have parameterized the energy dependence S(E) by an
accurate universal 9-parameter analytic expression and present tables of fit
parameters for all the reactions. We also discuss the reduced 3-parameter
version of our fit which is highly accurate at energies below the Coulomb
barrier, and outline the procedure for calculating the reaction rates. The
results can be easily converted to thermonuclear or pycnonuclear reaction rates
to simulate various nuclear burning phenomena, in particular, stellar burning
at high temperatures and nucleosynthesis in high density environments.Comment: 30 pages including 11 tables, 4 figures, ADNDT, accepte
Calculations of fission rates for r-process nucleosynthesis
Fission plays an important role in the r-process which is responsible not
only for the yields of transuranium isotopes, but may have a strong influence
on the formation of the majority of heavy nuclei due to fission recycling. We
present calculations of beta-delayed and neutron-induced fission rates, taking
into account different fission barriers predictions and mass formulae.
It is shown that an increase of fission barriers results naturally in a
reduction of fission rates, but that nevertheless fission leads to the
termination of the r-process. Furthermore, it is discussed that the probability
of triple fission could be high for and have an effect on the formation
of the abundances of heavy nuclei. Fission after beta-delayed neutron emission
is discussed as well as different aspects of the influence of fission upon
r-process calculations.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, to be published in Nuclear Physics
Nucleosynthesis in neutrino heated matter: The vp-process and the r-process
This manuscript reviews recent progress in our understanding of the
nucleosynthesis of medium and heavy elements in supernovae. Recent
hydrodynamical models of core-collapse supernovae show that a large amount of
proton rich matter is ejected under strong neutrino fluxes. This matter
constitutes the site of the vp-process where antineutrino absorption reactions
catalyze the nucleosynthesis of nuclei with A > 64. Supernovae are also
associated with the r-process responsible for the synthesis of the heaviest
elements in nature. Fission during the r-process can play a major role in
determining the final abundance patter and in explaining the almost universal
features seen in metal-poor r-process-rich stars.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, invited talk at NIC-IX, International Symposium
on Nuclear Astrophysics - Nuclei in the Cosmos - IX, CERN, Geneva,
Switzerland, 25-30 June, 200
Direct Neutron Capture for Magic-Shell Nuclei
In neutron capture for magic--shell nuclei the direct reaction mechanism can
be important and may even dominate. As an example we investigated the reaction
Ca(n,Ca for projectile energies below 250\,keV in a direct
capture model using the folding procedure for optical and bound state
potentials. The obtained theoretical cross sections are in agreement with the
experimental data showing the dominance of the direct reaction mechanism in
this case. The above method was also used to calculate the cross section for
Ca(n,Ca.Comment: REVTeX, 7 pages plus 3 uuencoded figures, the complete uuencoded
postscript file is available at ftp://is1.kph.tuwien.ac.at/pub/ohu/calcium.u
Unification of dynamic density functional theory for colloidal fluids to include inertia and hydrodynamic interactions: derivation and numerical experiments.
Starting from the Kramers equation for the phase-space dynamics of the N-body probability distribution, we derive a dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) for colloidal fluids including the effects of inertia and hydrodynamic interactions (HI). We compare the resulting theory to extensive Langevin dynamics simulations for both hard rod systems and three-dimensional hard sphere systems with radially symmetric external potentials. As well as demonstrating the accuracy of the new DDFT, by comparing with previous DDFTs which neglect inertia, HI, or both, we also scrutinize the significance of including these effects. Close to local equilibrium we derive a continuum equation from the microscopic dynamics which is a generalized NavierâStokes-like equation with additional non-local terms governing the effects of HI. For the overdamped limit we recover analogues of existing configuration-space DDFTs but with a novel diffusion tensor
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