Fine-tuning carbon-based life in the universe by the triple-alpha process in red giants
Abstract
Through the triple-alpha process occurring in red giant stars the bulk of the carbon existing in our universe is produced. We calculated the change of the triple-alpha reaction rate for slight variations of the nucleon-nucleon force using a microscopic 12-body model. Stellar model calculations for a low-mass, intermediate-mass and massive star using the different triple-alpha reaction rates obtained with different strengths of the N-N interaction have been performed. Even with a change of 0.4% in the strength of N-N force, carbon-based life appears to be impossible, since all the stars then would produce either almost solely carbon or oxygen, but could not produce both elements.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9908247,
title = {Fine-tuning carbon-based life in the universe by the triple-alpha process in red giants},
author = {Heinz Oberhummer and Attila Csoto and Helmut Schlattl},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9908247},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
9 pages with 1 figure. Invited talk given at the "The Future of the Universe and the Future of Our Civilization" Conference (July 2-6, 1999, Budapest, Hungary). To appear in the conference proceedings, to be published by World Scientific. The postscript file and more information are available at http://nova.elte.hu/~csoto