The Effects of Variations in Nuclear Processes on Type I X-Ray Burst Nucleosynthesis

TL;DR

This study investigates how uncertainties in nuclear reaction rates influence the nucleosynthesis during Type I X-ray bursts using extensive computational models and Monte Carlo simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of nuclear process uncertainties on X-ray burst nucleosynthesis through large-scale post-processing calculations and Monte Carlo methods.

Findings

Identification of key nuclear reactions affecting nucleosynthesis

Quantification of the impact of nuclear rate uncertainties

Comparison of individual versus simultaneous rate variations

Abstract

Type I X-ray bursts are violent stellar events that take place on the H/He-rich envelopes of accreting neutron stars. We have investigated the role played by uncertainties in nuclear processes on the nucleosynthesis accompanying these explosive phenomena. Two different approaches have been adopted, in the framework of post-processing calculations. In the first one, nuclear rates are varied individually within uncertainties. Ten different models, covering the characteristic parameter space for these stellar events, have been considered. The second, somewhat complementary approach involves a Monte Carlo code in which all nuclear rates are randomly varied within uncertainty limits simultaneously. All in all, about 50,000 post-processing calculations, with a network containing 606 nuclides (H to 113Xe) and more than 3500 nuclear processes, have been performed in this work. A brief comparison between both procedures is outlined together with an overall account of the key nuclear reactions whose uncertainties have the largest impact in our X-ray burst nucleosynthesis studies.