Nucleosynthesis simulations for a wide range of nuclear production sites from NuGrid

TL;DR

The paper presents the NuGrid project, which develops a comprehensive framework and codes for consistent nucleosynthesis simulations across various astrophysical sites, addressing heterogeneity and update delays in nuclear reaction data.

Contribution

It introduces a new post-processing nucleosynthesis code and framework that unify modeling approaches for diverse stellar environments, improving consistency and update integration.

Findings

Initial results for AGB stars show detailed nucleosynthesis yields.

Results for massive stars demonstrate the framework's capability to handle explosive environments.

The framework enables more consistent and timely nucleosynthesis predictions across different astrophysical sites.

Abstract

Simulations of nucleosynthesis in astrophysical environments are at the intersection of nuclear physics reaction rate research and astrophysical applications, for example in the area of galactic chemical evolution or near-field cosmology. Unfortunately, at present the available yields for such applications are based on heterogeneous assumptions between the various contributing nuclear production sites, both in terms of modeling the thermodynamic environment itself as well as the choice of specifc nuclear reaction rates and compilations. On the other side, new nuclear reaction rate determinations are often taking a long time to be included in astrophysical applications. The NuGrid project addresses these issues by providing a set of codes and a framework in which these codes interact. In this contribution we describe the motivation, goals and first results of the NuGrid project. At the core is a new and evolving post-processing nuclesoynthesis code (PPN) that can follow quiescent and explosive nucleosynthesis following multi-zone 1D-stellar evolution as well as multi-zone hydrodynamic input, including explosions. First results are available in the areas of AGB and massive stars.