Nuclear Structure Studies at ISOLDE and their Impact on the Astrophysical r-Process

The focus of the present review is the production of the heaviest elements in nature via the r-process. A correct understanding and modeling requires the knowledge of nuclear properties far from stability and a detailed prescription of the astrophysical environment. Experiments at CERN/ISOLDE have played a pioneering role in exploring the characteristics of nuclear structure in terms of masses and beta-decay properties. Initial examinations paid attention to far unstable nuclei with magic neutron numbers related to r-process peaks, while present activities are centered on the evolution of shell effects with the distance from the valley of stability. We first show in site-independent applications the effect of both types of nuclear properties on r-process abundances. Then, we explore the results of calculations related to two different `realistic' astrophysical sites, (i) the supernova neutrino wind and (ii) neutron star mergers. We close with a list of remaining theoretical and experimental challenges needed to overcome for a full understanding of the nature of the r-process, and the role CERN/ISOLDE can play in this process.Comment: LATEX, 38 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Hyperfine Interaction

Long-term evolution of massive star explosions

We examine simulations of core-collapse supernovae in spherical symmetry. Our model is based on general relativistic radiation hydrodynamics with three-flavor Boltzmann neutrino transport. We discuss the different supernova phases, including the long-term evolution up to 20 seconds after the onset of explosion during which the neutrino fluxes and mean energies decrease continuously. In addition, the spectra of all flavors become increasingly similar, indicating the change from charged- to neutral-current dominance. Furthermore, it has been shown recently by several groups independently, based on sophisticated supernova models, that collective neutrino flavor oscillations are suppressed during the early mass-accretion dominated post-bounce evolution. Here we focus on the possibility of collective flavor flips between electron and non-electron flavors during the later, on the order of seconds, evolution after the onset of an explosion with possible application for the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, conference proceeding, HANSE 2011 worksho

Inhomogeneous Chemical Evolution of r-process Elements in the Galactic Halo

For the production of r-process elements in our Galaxy, multiple sites have been discussed, among others, core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers. We use the observed elemental abundances of europium (Eu) in metal poor stars to reproduce the galactic chemical evolution of r-process elements. Our main findings are that additionally to neutron star mergers, a second, early acting site is necessary. We assume “magnetorotationally driven supernovae” act as this additional and earlier r-process site and conclude that our simulations with an adequate combination of these two sites successfully reproduces the observed r-process elemental abundances in the Galactic halo

Inhomogeneous chemical evolution of r-process elements

We report the results of a galactic chemical evolution (GCE) study for r-process- and alpha elements. For this work, we used the inhomogeneous GCE model "ICE", which allows to keep track of the galactic abundances of elements produced by different astrophysical sites. The main input parameters for this study were: a) The Neutron Star Merger (NSM) coalescence time scale, the probability of NSMs, and for the sub-class of "magneto-rotationally driven Supernovae" ("Jet-SNe"), their occurence rate in comparison to "standard" Supernovae (SNe)

Galactic evolution of rapid neutron capture process abundances: the inhomogeneous approach

For the origin of heavy rapid neutron capture process (r-process) elements, different sources have been proposed, e.g. core-collapse supernovae or neutron star mergers. Old metal-poor stars carry the signature of the astrophysical source(s). Among the elements dominantly made by the r-process, europium (Eu) is relatively easy to observe. In this work we simulate the evolution of Eu in our Galaxy with the inhomogeneous chemical evolution (ICE) model, and compare our results with spectroscopic observations. We test the most important parameters affecting the chemical evolution of Eu: (a) for neutron star mergers the coalescence time-scale of the merger (tcoal) and the probability to experience a neutron star merger event after two supernova explosions occurred and formed a double neutron star system (PNSM) and (b) for the subclass of magnetorotationally driven supernovae (‘Jet-SNe'), their occurrence rate compared to standard supernovae (PJet-SN). We find that the observed [Eu/Fe] pattern in the Galaxy can be reproduced by a combination of neutron star mergers and Jet-SNe as r-process sources. While neutron star mergers alone seem to set in at too high metallicities, Jet-SNe provide a cure for this deficiency at low metallicities. Furthermore, we confirm that local inhomogeneities can explain the observed large spread in the Eu abundances at low metallicities. We also predict the evolution of [O/Fe] to test whether the spread in α-elements for inhomogeneous models agrees with observations and whether this provides constraints on supernova explosion models and their nucleosynthesi

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 (M$>$8M$_\odot$) 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

Galactic evolution of rapid neutron capture process abundances: The inhomogeneous approach

For the origin of heavy r-process elements, different sources have been proposed, e.g., core-collapse supernovae or neutron star mergers. Old metal-poor stars carry the signature of the astrophysical source(s). Among the elements dominantly made by the r-process, europium (Eu) is relatively easy to observe. In this work we simulate the evolution of europium in our galaxy with the inhomogeneous chemical evolution model ’ICE’, and compare our results with spectroscopic observations. We test the most important parameters affecting the chemical evolution of Eu: (a) for neutron star mergers, the coalescence time scale of the merger (tcoal) and the probability to experience a neutron star merger event after two supernova explosions occurred and formed a double neutron star system (PNSM) and (b) for the sub-class of magneto-rotationally driven supernovae (”Jet-SNe”), their occurrence rate compared to standard supernovae (PJet−SN). We find that the observed [Eu/Fe] pattern in the galaxy can be reproduced by a combination of neutron star mergers and magneto-rotationally driven supernovae as r-process sources. While neutron star mergers alone seem to set in at too high metallicities, Jet-SNe provide a cure for this deficiency at low metallicities. Furthermore, we confirm that local inhomogeneities can explain the observed large spread in the europium abundances at low metallicities. We also predict the evolution of [O/Fe] to test whether the spread in α-elements for inhomogeneous models agrees with observations and whether this provides constraints on supernova explosion models and their nucleosynthesis