What are the astrophysical sites for the -process and the production of heavy elements?

✍ Scribed by F.-K. Thielemann; A. Arcones; R. Käppeli; M. Liebendörfer; T. Rauscher; C. Winteler; C. Fröhlich; I. Dillmann; T. Fischer; G. Martinez-Pinedo; K. Langanke; K. Farouqi; K.-L. Kratz; I. Panov; I.K. Korneev

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 817 KB
• Volume: 66
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6410
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ppnp.2011.01.032

✦ Synopsis

This article addresses three of the four nucleosynthesis processes involved in producing heavy nuclei beyond Fe (with a main focus on the r-process). Opposite to the fourth process (the s-process), which operates in stellar evolution during He-and C-burning, they are all related to explosive burning phases, (presumably) linked to core collapse supernova events of massive stars. The (classical) p-process is identified with explosive Ne/O-burning in outer zones of the progenitor star. It is initiated by the passage of the supernova shock wave and acts via photodisintegration reactions like a spallation process which produces neighboring (proton-rich) isotopes from pre-existing heavy nuclei. The reproduction of some of the so-called lighter p-isotopes with A < 100 faces problems in this environment. The only recently discovered νp-process is related to the innermost