Energy levels of light nuclei A = 12

Nuclear Data Sheets for A = 48☆

Nuclear Data Sheets for A = 58☆

Electron capture on nuclei plays an essential role in the dynamics of several astrophysical objects, including core-collapse and thermonuclear supernovae, the crust of accreting neutron stars in binary systems and the final core evolution of intermediate-mass stars. In these astrophysical objects, the capture occurs at finite temperatures and densities, at which the electrons form a degenerate relativistic electron gas. The capture rates can be derived from perturbation theory, where allowed nuclear transitions [Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions] dominate, except at the higher temperatures achieved in core-collapse supernovae, where forbidden transitions also contribute significantly to the capture rates. There has been decisive progress in recent years in measuring GT strength distributions using novel experimental techniques based on charge-exchange reactions. These measurements not only provide data for the GT distributions of ground states for many relevant nuclei, but also serve as valuable constraints for nuclear models which are needed to derive the capture rates for the many nuclei for which no data yet exist. In particular, models are needed to evaluate stellar capture rates at finite temperatures, where capture can also occur on nuclei in thermally excited states. There has also been significant progress in recent years in the modeling of stellar capture rates. This has been made possible by advances in nuclear many-body models as well as in computer soft- and hardware. Specifically, to derive reliable capture rates for core-collapse supernovae, a dedicated strategy has been developed based on a hierarchy of nuclear models specifically adapted to the abundant nuclei and astrophysical conditions present under various collapse conditions. In particular, for the challenging conditions where the electron chemical potential and the nuclearQvalues are of the same order, large-scale shell-model diagonalization calculations have proved to be an appropriate tool to derive stellar capture rates, often validated by experimental data. Such situations are relevant in the early stage of the core collapse of massive stars, for the nucleosynthesis of thermonuclear supernovae, and for the final evolution of the cores of intermediate-mass stars involving nuclei in the mass rangeA∼ 20-65. This manuscript reviews the experimental and theoretical progress recently achieved in deriving stellar electron capture rates. It also discusses the impact these improved rates have on our understanding of the various astrophysical objects.

Electron capture in stars.

Electron captures on nuclei play an essential role for the dynamics of several astrophysical objects. The capture rate can be derived in perturbation theory where allowed nuclear transitions (Gamow-Teller transitions) dominate, except at the higher temperatures achieved in core-collapse supernovae where also forbidden transitions contribute significantly to the rates. There has been decisive progress in recent years in measuring Gamow-Teller (GT) strength distributions using novel experimental techniques based on charge-exchange reactions. These measurements provide not only data for the GT distributions of ground states for many relevant nuclei, but also serve as valuable constraints for nuclear models which are needed to derive the capture rates for the many nuclei, for which no data exist yet. In particular models are needed to evaluate the stellar capture rates at finite temperatures, where the capture can also occur on excited nuclear states. 
There has also been significant progress in recent years in the modelling of stellar capture rates. This has been made possible by advances in nuclear many-body models as well as in computer soft- and hardware. Specifically to derive reliable capture rates for core-collapse supernovae a dedicated strategy has been developed based on a hierarchy of nuclear models specifically adapted to the abundant nuclei and astrophysically conditions present at the various collapse conditions. 
This manuscript reviews the experimental and theoretical progress achieved recently in deriving stellar electron capture rates. It also discusses the impact these improved rates have on the various astrophysical objects. (Abridged)

Electron capture in stars

We have used the 43 MeV/nucleon primary tritium beam of the AGOR facility with an intensity of 4x10(7) pps and the BBS experimental setup to study the (t,He-3) reaction between 0 degrees and 5 degrees lab angles on C-12, Ca-48, and Ni-58 targets. The standard ray-tracing procedure has allowed us to obtain excitation-energy spectra up to 30 MeV in six angular bins for each residual nucleus, with an average energy resolution of 350 keV. The reaction mechanism has been described in distorted-waves Born approximation (DWBA) using the DWBA98 code. In this approximation, the form factor is treated as a folding of an effective projectile-nucleon interaction with a transition density. The effective projectile-nucleon interaction has been adjusted to reproduce the 0(degrees) cross section of the 1(+) ground state of B-12 populated in the C-12(t,He-3) reaction. We have employed random-phase approximation (RPA) wave functions of excited states to construct the form factor instead of the normal modes wave functions used earlier. This new DWBA+RPA analysis is used to compare calculated and experimental cross sections directly and to discuss the giant resonance excitations in K-48 and Co-58 nuclei.

C. Bäumer

Papers

The (t,He-3) reaction at 43 MeV/nucleon on Ca-48 and Ni-58 : Results and microscopic interpretation