A unified model for nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in stars

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive model for heavy element formation in stars, solving coupled nuclear equations numerically to accurately simulate nucleosynthesis across different neutron flux conditions, aligning well with solar system observations.

Contribution

It presents a unified, numerical approach to model heavy element nucleosynthesis without simplifying assumptions, capturing the full process across various neutron flux regimes.

Findings

Reproduces solar system heavy element abundances reasonably well.

Predicts that weak neutron flux nucleosynthesis can produce elements associated with high flux environments.

Provides a flexible model applicable to different stellar conditions.

Abstract

We propose a unified model for the nucleosynthesis of heavy (A > 57) elements in stars. The neutron flux can be set to describe neutron capture in arbitrary neutron flux. Our approach solves the coupled differential equations, that describe the neutron capture and decays of 2696 nuclei, numerically without truncating those to include only either capture or decay as traditionally assumed in weak neutron flux (s process). As a result the synthesis of heavy nuclei always evolves along a wide band in the valley of stable nuclei. The observed abundances in the Solar system are reproduced reasonably already in the simplest version of the model. The model predicts that the nucleosynthesis in weak or modest neutron flux produces elements that are traditionally assumed to result in the high neutron flux of supernovae explosions (r process).