Determining Electron-capture Rates of pf-shell Nuclei in Explosive Stellar Environments

ORAL

Abstract

The electron-capture rates on pf-shell nuclei are required to model the evolution of core-collapse and thermonuclear supernovae. The majority of these rates are determined from calculated Gamow-Teller strength (B(GT)) distributions, as it's not feasible to measure the B(GT) distributions for all pf-shell nuclei. We present preliminary results of a systematic comparison between the electron-capture rates of 13 pf-shell nuclei determined from experimental B(GT) distribution measurements and the electron-capture rates of nuclei determined only from calculated B(GT) distributions, as measurements do not exist. The B(GT) distribution calculations were performed with the shell model using two different interaction Hamiltonians.

*This work is supported in part by NSF grants PHY-0822648, PHY-0606007, PHY-0758099 and by an award from Research Corporation for Science Advancement.

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Authors

  • A.L. Cole

  • A.C. Dombos

    • Physics Department, Kalamazoo College

  • R.G.T. Zegers

  • Sam M. Austin

  • B.A. Brown

  • L. Valdez

    • NSCL, JINA, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University

  • S. Gupta

    • Indian Institute of Technology Ropar

  • G.W. Hitt

    • Khalifa University of Science, Technology \& Research