Nucleosynthesis of "Light" Heavy Nuclei in Neutrino-driven Winds. Role of ($\alpha,n$) reactions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ($ ext{alpha},n$) reactions influence the synthesis of light heavy elements in neutrino-driven winds from supernovae, highlighting key reactions affecting abundance predictions and the importance of experimental measurements.

Contribution

It identifies critical ($ ext{alpha},n$) reactions that impact nucleosynthesis predictions and emphasizes the need for their experimental measurement to constrain astrophysical conditions.

Findings

Certain ($ ext{alpha},n$) reactions dominate abundance uncertainties.

Sensitivity of nucleosynthesis to astrophysical conditions is summarized.

Measuring key reactions can improve understanding of the weak r process.

Abstract

Neutrino-driven winds following core collapse supernovae have been proposed as a suitable site where the so-called light heavy elements (between Sr to Ag) can be synthetized. For moderately neutron-rich winds, ($\alpha,n$) reactions play a critical role in the weak r process, becoming the main mechanism to drive nuclear matter towards heavier elements. In this paper we summarize the sensitivity of network-calculated abundances to the astrophysical conditions, and to uncertainties in the ($\alpha,n$) reaction rates. A list of few ($\alpha,n$) reactions were identified to dominate the uncertainty in the calculated elemental abundances. Measurements of these reactions will allow to identify the astrophysical conditions of the weak r process by comparing calculated/observed abundances in r-limited stars.