# Electron-capture Rates in $^{20}$Ne for a Forbidden Transition to the Ground State of $^{20}$F Relevant to Final Evolution of High-density O-Ne-Mg Cores

## TL;DR

This paper evaluates electron-capture rates for a forbidden transition in $^{20}$Ne relevant to stellar evolution, using shell-model calculations, and finds significant differences from previous methods, impacting star core evolution models.

## Contribution

The study introduces a new shell-model based calculation of electron-capture rates for a forbidden transition in $^{20}$Ne, improving accuracy over previous approximations.

## Key findings

- New rates differ significantly from allowed transition estimates.
- Coulomb effects on ions and electrons are non-negligible.
- Updated rates influence the predicted evolution of stellar cores.

## Abstract

Electron capture on $^{20}$Ne is critically important for the final stage of evolution of stars with the initial masses of 8 - 10 $M_{\odot}$. In the present paper, we evaluate electron capture rates for a forbidden transition $^{20}$Ne (0$_{g.s.}^{+}$) $\rightarrow$ $^{20}$F (2$_{g.s.}^{+}$) in stellar environments by the multipole expansion method with the use of shell-model Hamiltonians. These rates have not been accurately determined in theory as well as in experiments. Our newly evaluated rates are compared with those obtained by a prescription that treats the transition as an allowed Gamow-Teller (GT) transition with the strength determined from a recent $\beta$-decay experiment for $^{20}$F (2$_{g.s.}^{+}$) $\rightarrow$ $^{20}$Ne (0$_{g.s.}^{+}$) \citep{Kirsebom}. We find that different electron energy dependence of the transition strengths between the two methods leads to sizable differences in the weak rates of the two methods. We also find that the Coulomb effects, that is, the effects of screening on ions and electrons are non-negligible. We apply our e-capture rates on $^{20}$Ne to the calculation of the evolution of high-density O-Ne-Mg cores of 8 - 10 $M_{\odot}$ stars. We find that our new rates affect the abundance distribution and the central density at the final stage of evolution.