The impact of individual nuclear properties on $r$-process nucleosynthesis

By M. Mumpower, Ruth Surman, Gail McLaughlin, A. Aprahamian. 2015

401 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The astrophysical rapid neutron capture process or `$r$ process' of nucleosynthesis is believed to be responsible for the production of approximately half the heavy element abundances found in nature. This multifaceted problem remains one of the greatest open challenges in all of physics. Knowledge of nuclear physics properties such as masses, $\beta$-decay and neutron capture rates, as well as $\beta$-delayed neutron emission probabilities are critical inputs that go into calculations of $r$-process nucleosynthesis. While properties of nuclei near stability have been established, much still remains unknown regarding neutron-rich nuclei far from stability that may participate in the $r$ process. Sensitivity studies gauge the astrophysical response of a change in nuclear physics input(s) which allows for the isolation of the most important nuclear properties that shape the final abundances observed in nature. This review summarizes the extent of recent sensitivity studies and highlights how these studies play a key role in facilitating new insight into the $r$ process. The development of these tools promotes a focused effort for state-of-the-art measurements, motivates construction of new facilities and will ultimately move the community towards addressing the grand challenge of `How were the elements from iron to uranium made?'.

Subfields: Aerospace Engineering, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6c4c9fbd492ab4bc669f9ebd06c5690fb6e2a9f4

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Citations in the corpus

Symmetry Parameter Constraints from a Lower Bound on Neutron-matter Energy (2016, background): “The symmetry energy is also important in calculations of the r-process (Mumpower et al. 2016), supernovae (Fischer et al. 2014), and neutron-star mergers (Bauswein et al. 2016).”
Neutron Star Mergers Might Not Be the Only Source of r-process Elements in the Milky Way (2018, background): “In addition, large uncertainties in r-process nucleosynthesis calculations (e.g., Mumpower et al. 2016; Thielemann et al. 2017; Horowitz et al. 2018) do not allow at the moment to derive strong constraints on the i-process component.”
Signatures of hypermassive neutron star lifetimes on r-process nucleosynthesis in the disc ejecta from neutron star mergers (2017, methodology): “In all models, the third peak is shifted to slightly higher mass numbers, which is a well-known shortcoming of the FRDM mass model (e.g., Mendoza-Temis et al. 2015; Mumpower et al. 2016).”
The Origin of r-process Elements in the Milky Way (2017, methodology): “Variations in the unknown nuclear masses (Mumpower et al. 2016b), fission fragment distribution (e.g. Goriely et al. 2013), neutron capture rates (Mumpower et al. 2012), β-decay rates (Eichler et al. 2015; Mumpower et al. 2014), and the specifics of the fission mechanism itself can all…”