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Register a new userImpact of the nuclear mass uncertainties on the r process
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Based on a simple site-independent approach, we attempt to reproduce the solar $r$-process abundance with four nuclear mass models, and investigate the impact of the nuclear mass uncertainties on the $r$ process. In this paper, we first analyze the reliability of an adopted empirical formula for $beta$-decay half-lives which is a key ingredient for the $r$ process. Then we apply four different mass tables to study the $r$-process nucleosynthesis together with the calculated $beta$-decay half-lives, and the existing $beta$-decay data from FRDM+QRPA is also considered for comparison. The numerical results show that the main features of the solar $r$-process pattern and the locations of the abundance peaks can be reproduced well via the $r$-process simulations. Moreover, we also find that the mass uncertainties can significantly affect the derived astrophysical conditions for the $r$-process site, and resulting in a remarkable impact on the $r$ process.
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We have performed for the first time a complete $r$-process mass sensitivity study in the $N=82$ region. We take into account how an uncertainty in a single nuclear mass propagates to influence important quantities of neighboring nuclei, including Q-values and reaction rates. We demonstrate that nuclear mass uncertainties of $pm0.5$ MeV in the $N=82$ region result in up to an order of magnitude local change in $r$-process abundance predictions. We identify key nuclei in the study whose mass has a substantial impact on final $r$-process abundances and could be measured at future radioactive beam facilities.
Merging neutron stars produce kilonovae---electromagnetic transients powered by the decay of unstable nuclei synthesized via rapid neutron capture (the r-process) in material that is gravitationally unbound during inspiral and coalescence. Kilonova emission, if accurately interpreted, can be used to characterize the masses and compositions of merger-driven outflows, helping to resolve a long-standing debate about the origins of r-process material in the Universe. We explore how the uncertain properties of nuclei involved in the r-process complicate the inference of outflow properties from kilonova observations. Using r-process simulations, we show how nuclear physics uncertainties impact predictions of radioactive heating and element synthesis. For a set of models that span a large range in both predicted heating and final abundances, we carry out detailed numerical calculations of decay product thermalization and radiation transport in a kilonova ejecta with a fixed mass and density profile. The light curves associated with our models exhibit great diversity in their luminosities, with peak brightness varying by more than an order of magnitude. We also find variability in the shape of the kilonova light curves and their color, which in some cases runs counter to the expectation that increasing levels of lanthanide and/or actinide enrichment will be correlated with longer, dimmer, redder emission.
The rapid neutron capture process (r-process) is thought to be responsible for the creation of more than half of all elements beyond iron. The scientific challenges to understanding the origin of the heavy elements beyond iron lie in both the uncertainties associated with astrophysical conditions that are needed to allow an r-process to occur and a vast lack of knowledge about the properties of nuclei far from stability. There is great global competition to access and measure the most exotic nuclei that existing facilities can reach, while simultaneously building new, more powerful accelerators to make even more exotic nuclei. This work is an attempt to determine the most crucial nuclear masses to measure using an r-process simulation code and several mass models (FRDM, Duflo-Zuker, and HFB-21). The most important nuclear masses to measure are determined by the changes in the resulting r-process abundances. Nuclei around the closed shells near N=50, 82, and 126 have the largest impact on r-process abundances irrespective of the mass models used.
Uncertainties in nuclear models have a major impact on simulations that aim at understanding the origin of heavy elements in the universe through the rapid neutron capture process ($r$ process) of nucleosynthesis. Within the framework of the nuclear density functional theory, we use results of Bayesian statistical analysis to propagate uncertainties in the parameters of energy density functionals to the predicted $r$-process abundance pattern, by way not only of the nuclear masses but also through the influence of the masses on $beta$-decay and neutron capture rates. We additionally make the first identifications of specific parameters of Skyrme-like energy density functionals which are correlated with particular aspects of the $r$-process abundance pattern. While previous studies have explored the reduction in the abundance pattern uncertainties due to anticipated new measurements of neutron-rich nuclei, here we point out that an even larger reduction will occur when these new measurements are used to reduce the uncertainty of model predictions of masses, which are then propagated through to the abundance pattern. We make a quantitative prediction for how large this reduction will be.
The rapid neutron-capture process ($r$-process) has for the first time been confirmed to take place in a neutron-star merger event. A detailed understanding of the rapid neutron-capture process is one of the holy grails in nuclear astrophysics. In this work we investigate one aspect of the $r$-process modelling: uncertainties in radiative neutron-capture cross sections and astrophysical reaction rates for isotopes of the elements Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, As, and Se. In particular, we study deviations from standard libraries used for astrophysics, and the influence of a very-low $gamma$-energy enhancement in the average, reduced $gamma$-decay probability on the ($n,gamma$) rates. We find that the intrinsic uncertainties are in some cases extremely large, and that the low-energy enhancement, if present in neutron-rich nuclei, may increase the neutron-capture reaction rate significantly.
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