English

Proton Drip-Line Calculations and the Rp-process

Nuclear Theory 2008-11-26 v1

Abstract

One-proton and two-proton separation energies are calculated for proton-rich nuclei in the region A=4175 A=41-75 . The method is based on Skyrme Hartree-Fock calculations of Coulomb displacement energies of mirror nuclei in combination with the experimental masses of the neutron-rich nuclei. The implications for the proton drip line and the astrophysical rp-process are discussed. This is done within the framework of a detailed analysis of the sensitivity of rp process calculations in type I X-ray burst models on nuclear masses. We find that the remaining mass uncertainties, in particular for some nuclei with N=ZN=Z, still lead to large uncertainties in calculations of X-ray burst light curves. Further experimental or theoretical improvements of nuclear mass data are necessary before observed X-ray burst light curves can be used to obtain quantitative constraints on ignition conditions and neutron star properties. We identify a list of nuclei for which improved mass data would be most important.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.nucl-th/0201053,
  title  = {Proton Drip-Line Calculations and the Rp-process},
  author = {B. A. Brown and R. R. C. Clement and W. A. Richter and H. Schatz and A. Volya},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:nucl-th/0201053},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

20 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables