Supernova Nucleosynthesis
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Supernova nucleosynthesis is the
nucleosynthesis Nucleosynthesis is the process that creates new atomic nuclei from pre-existing nucleons (protons and neutrons) and nuclei. According to current theories, the first nuclei were formed a few minutes after the Big Bang, through nuclear reactions in ...
of
chemical element A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler sub ...
s in
supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
explosions. In sufficiently massive stars, the nucleosynthesis by fusion of lighter elements into heavier ones occurs during sequential
hydrostatic Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the condition of the equilibrium of a floating body and submerged body "fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and the pressure in a fluid, or exerted by a fluid, on an imme ...
burning processes called
helium burning The triple-alpha process is a set of nuclear fusion reactions by which three helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) are transformed into carbon. Triple-alpha process in stars Helium accumulates in the cores of stars as a result of the proton–pr ...
,
carbon burning The carbon-burning process or carbon fusion is a set of nuclear fusion reactions that take place in the cores of massive stars (at least 8 \beginM_\odot\end at birth) that combines carbon into other elements. It requires high temperatures (> 5& ...
, oxygen burning, and
silicon burning In astrophysics, silicon burning is a very brief sequence of nuclear fusion reactions that occur in massive stars with a minimum of about 8–11 solar masses. Silicon burning is the final stage of fusion for massive stars that have run out of the ...
, in which the byproducts of one nuclear fuel become, after compressional heating, the fuel for the subsequent burning stage. In this context, the word "burning" refers to nuclear fusion and not a chemical reaction. During hydrostatic burning these fuels synthesize overwhelmingly the
alpha nuclide An alpha nuclide is a nuclide that consists of an integer number of alpha particles. Alpha nuclides have equal, even numbers of protons and neutrons; they are important in stellar nucleosynthesis since the energetic environment within stars is ...
s (), nuclei composed of integer numbers of helium-4 nuclei. A rapid final explosive burning is caused by the sudden temperature spike owing to passage of the radially moving shock wave that was launched by the gravitational collapse of the core. W. D. Arnett and his
Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...
colleagues demonstrated that the final shock burning would synthesize the non-alpha-nucleus isotopes more effectively than hydrostatic burning was able to do,See Figures 1, 3, and 4 in Arnett & Clayton (1970) and Fig. 2, p. 241 in suggesting that the expected shock-wave nucleosynthesis is an essential component of supernova nucleosynthesis. Together, shock-wave nucleosynthesis and hydrostatic-burning processes create most of the isotopes of the elements
carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
(),
oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
(), and elements with (from
neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...
to
nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...
). As a result of the ejection of the newly synthesized
isotope Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers (mass numbers) ...
s of the
chemical element A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler sub ...
s by supernova explosions, their abundances steadily increased within interstellar gas. That increase became evident to astronomers from the initial abundances in newly born stars exceeding those in earlier-born stars. Elements heavier than nickel are comparatively rare owing to the decline with atomic weight of their nuclear binding energies per nucleon, but they too are created in part within supernovae. Of greatest interest historically has been their synthesis by rapid capture of
neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons beh ...
s during the ''r''-process, reflecting the common belief that supernova cores are likely to provide the necessary conditions. However, newer research has proposed a promising alternative (see the r-process below). The ''r''-process isotopes are approximately 100,000 times less abundant than the primary chemical elements fused in supernova shells above. Furthermore, other nucleosynthesis processes in supernovae are thought to be responsible also for some nucleosynthesis of other heavy elements, notably, the
proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
capture process known as the ''rp''-process, the slow capture of neutrons ( ''s''-process) in the helium-burning shells and in the carbon-burning shells of massive stars, and a
photodisintegration Photodisintegration (also called phototransmutation, or a photonuclear reaction) is a nuclear process in which an atomic nucleus absorbs a high-energy gamma ray, enters an excited state, and immediately decays by emitting a subatomic particle. The ...
process known as the -process (gamma-process). The latter synthesizes the lightest, most neutron-poor, isotopes of the elements heavier than iron from preexisting heavier isotopes.


History

In 1946,
Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle FRS (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on other sci ...
proposed that elements heavier than hydrogen and helium would be produced by nucleosynthesis in the cores of massive stars. It had previously been thought that the elements we see in the modern universe had been largely produced during its formation. At this time, the nature of supernovae was unclear and Hoyle suggested that these heavy elements were distributed into space by rotational instability. In 1954, the theory of nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in massive stars was refined and combined with more understanding of supernovae to calculate the abundances of the elements from carbon to nickel. Key elements of the theory included: * the prediction of the excited state in the C nucleus that enables the
triple-alpha process The triple-alpha process is a set of nuclear fusion reactions by which three helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) are transformed into carbon. Triple-alpha process in stars Helium accumulates in the cores of stars as a result of the proton–pro ...
to burn resonantly to carbon and oxygen; * the thermonuclear sequels of
carbon-burning The carbon-burning process or carbon fusion is a set of nuclear fusion reactions that take place in the cores of massive stars (at least 8 \beginM_\odot\end at birth) that combines carbon into other elements. It requires high temperatures (> 5&t ...
synthesizing Ne, Mg and Na; and * oxygen-burning synthesizing silicon, aluminum, and sulphur. The theory predicted that
silicon burning In astrophysics, silicon burning is a very brief sequence of nuclear fusion reactions that occur in massive stars with a minimum of about 8–11 solar masses. Silicon burning is the final stage of fusion for massive stars that have run out of the ...
would happen as the final stage of core fusion in massive stars, although nuclear science could not then calculate exactly how. Hoyle also predicted that the collapse of the evolved cores of massive stars was "inevitable" owing to their increasing rate of energy loss by neutrinos and that the resulting explosions would produce further nucleosynthesis of heavy elements and eject them into space. In 1957, a paper by the authors E. M. Burbidge, G. R. Burbidge, W. A. Fowler, and Hoyle expanded and refined the theory and achieved widespread acclaim. It became known as the B²FH or BBFH paper, after the initials of its authors. The earlier papers fell into obscurity for decades after the more-famous B²FH paper did not attribute Hoyle's original description of nucleosynthesis in massive stars. Donald D. Clayton has attributed the obscurity also to Hoyle's 1954 paper describing its key equation only in words, and a lack of careful review by Hoyle of the B²FH draft by coauthors who had themselves not adequately studied Hoyle's paper. During his 1955 discussions in Cambridge with his co-authors in preparation of the B²FH first draft in 1956 in Pasadena, Hoyle's modesty had inhibited him from emphasizing to them the great achievements of his 1954 theory. Thirteen years after the B²FH paper, W.D. Arnett and colleagues demonstrated that the final burning in the passing shock wave launched by collapse of the core could synthesize non-alpha-particle isotopes more effectively than hydrostatic burning could, suggesting that explosive nucleosynthesis is an essential component of supernova nucleosynthesis. A shock wave rebounded from matter collapsing onto the dense core, if strong enough to lead to mass ejection of the mantle of supernovae, would necessarily be strong enough to provide the sudden heating of the shells of massive stars needed for explosive thermonuclear burning within the mantle. Understanding how that shock wave can reach the mantle in the face of continuing infall onto the shock became the theoretical difficulty.
Supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
observations assured that it must occur. White dwarfs were proposed as possible progenitors of certain supernovae in the late 1960s, although a good understanding of the mechanism and nucleosynthesis involved did not develop until the 1980s. This showed that ejected very large amounts of radioactive nickel and lesser amounts of other iron-peak elements, with the nickel decaying rapidly to cobalt and then iron.


Era of computer models

The papers of Hoyle (1946) and Hoyle (1954) and of B²FH (1957) were written by those scientists before the advent of the age of computers. They relied on hand calculations, deep thought, physical intuition, and familiarity with details of nuclear physics. Brilliant as these founding papers were, a cultural disconnect soon emerged with a younger generation of scientists who began to construct computer programs that would eventually yield numerical answers for the advanced evolution of stars and the nucleosynthesis within them.


Cause

A supernova is a violent explosion of a star that occurs under two principal scenarios. The first is that a
white dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...
star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
, which is the remnant of a low-mass star that has exhausted its nuclear fuel, undergoes a thermonuclear explosion after its mass is increased beyond its
Chandrasekhar limit The Chandrasekhar limit () is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The currently accepted value of the Chandrasekhar limit is about (). White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through electron degeneracy pressure, compa ...
by accreting nuclear-fuel mass from a more diffuse companion star (usually a
red giant A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around or ...
) with which it is in binary orbit. The resulting runaway nucleosynthesis completely destroys the star and ejects its mass into space. The second, and about threefold more common, scenario occurs when a massive star (12–35 times more massive than the sun), usually a
supergiant Supergiants are among the most massive and most luminous stars. Supergiant stars occupy the top region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram with absolute visual magnitudes between about −3 and −8. The temperature range of supergiant stars spa ...
at the critical time, reaches
nickel-56 Naturally occurring nickel (28Ni) is composed of five stable isotopes; , , , and , with being the most abundant (68.077% natural abundance). 26 radioisotopes have been characterised with the most stable being with a half-life of 76,000 years, ...
in its core
nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifest ...
(or burning) processes. Without exothermic energy from fusion, the core of the pre-supernova massive star loses heat needed for pressure support, and collapses owing to the strong gravitational pull. The energy transfer from the core collapse causes the supernova display. The
nickel-56 Naturally occurring nickel (28Ni) is composed of five stable isotopes; , , , and , with being the most abundant (68.077% natural abundance). 26 radioisotopes have been characterised with the most stable being with a half-life of 76,000 years, ...
isotope has one of the largest
binding energies In physics and chemistry, binding energy is the smallest amount of energy required to remove a particle from a system of particles or to disassemble a system of particles into individual parts. In the former meaning the term is predominantly use ...
per nucleon of all isotopes, and is therefore the last isotope whose synthesis during core
silicon burning In astrophysics, silicon burning is a very brief sequence of nuclear fusion reactions that occur in massive stars with a minimum of about 8–11 solar masses. Silicon burning is the final stage of fusion for massive stars that have run out of the ...
releases energy by
nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifest ...
,
exothermic In thermodynamics, an exothermic process () is a thermodynamic process or reaction that releases energy from the system to its surroundings, usually in the form of heat, but also in a form of light (e.g. a spark, flame, or flash), electricity (e ...
ally. The binding energy per nucleon declines for atomic weights heavier than ending fusion's history of supplying thermal energy to the star. The thermal energy released when the infalling supernova mantle hits the semi-solid core is very large, about 10 ergs, about a hundred times the energy released by the supernova as the kinetic energy of its ejected mass. Dozens of research papers have been published in the attempt to describe the hydrodynamics of how that small one percent of the infalling energy is transmitted to the overlying mantle in the face of continuous infall onto the core. That uncertainty remains in the full description of core-collapse supernovae. Nuclear fusion reactions that produce elements heavier than iron absorb nuclear energy and are said to be
endothermic In thermochemistry, an endothermic process () is any thermodynamic process with an increase in the enthalpy (or internal energy ) of the system.Oxtoby, D. W; Gillis, H.P., Butler, L. J. (2015).''Principle of Modern Chemistry'', Brooks Cole. p. ...
reactions. When such reactions dominate, the internal temperature that supports the star's outer layers drops. Because the outer envelope is no longer sufficiently supported by the radiation pressure, the star's gravity pulls its mantle rapidly inward. As the star collapses, this mantle collides violently with the growing incompressible stellar core, which has a density almost as great as an atomic nucleus, producing a shockwave that rebounds outward through the unfused material of the outer shell. The increase of temperature by the passage of that shockwave is sufficient to induce fusion in that material, often called ''explosive nucleosynthesis''. The energy deposited by the shockwave somehow leads to the star's explosion, dispersing fusing matter in the mantle above the core into
interstellar space Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, predo ...
.


Silicon burning

After a star completes the
oxygen burning process The oxygen-burning process is a set of nuclear fusion reactions that take place in massive stars that have used up the lighter elements in their cores. Oxygen-burning is preceded by the neon-burning process and succeeded by the silicon-burning pr ...
, its core is composed primarily of silicon and sulfur. If it has sufficiently high mass, it further contracts until its core reaches temperatures in the range of 2.7–3.5 billion K (). At these temperatures, silicon and other isotopes suffer photoejection of nucleons by energetic thermal photons () ejecting especially alpha particles (He). The nuclear process of silicon burning differs from earlier fusion stages of nucleosynthesis in that it entails a balance between alpha-particle captures and their inverse photo ejection which establishes abundances of all alpha-particle elements in the following sequence in which each alpha particle capture shown is opposed by its inverse reaction, namely, photo ejection of an alpha particle by the abundant thermal photons: : The alpha-particle nuclei Ti and those more massive in the final five reactions listed are all radioactive, but they decay after their ejection in supernova explosions into abundant isotopes of Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe and Ni. This post-supernova radioactivity became of great importance for the emergence of gamma-ray-line astronomy. In these physical circumstances of rapid opposing reactions, namely alpha-particle capture and photo ejection of alpha particles, the abundances are not determined by alpha-particle-capture cross sections; rather they are determined by the values that the abundances must assume in order to balance the speeds of the rapid opposing-reaction currents. Each abundance takes on a ''stationary value'' that achieves that balance. This picture is called ''nuclear quasiequilibrium''. Many computer calculations, for example, using the numerical rates of each reaction and of their reverse reactions have demonstrated that quasiequilibrium is not exact but does characterize well the computed abundances. Thus, the quasiequilibrium picture presents a comprehensible picture of what actually happens. It also fills in an uncertainty in Hoyle's 1954 theory. The quasiequilibrium buildup shuts off after Ni because the alpha-particle captures become slower whereas the photo ejections from heavier nuclei become faster. Non-alpha-particle nuclei also participate, using a host of reactions similar to : Ar + neutron Ar + photon and its inverse which set the stationary abundances of the non-alpha-particle isotopes, where the free densities of protons and neutrons are also established by the quasiequilibrium. However, the abundance of free neutrons is also proportional to the excess of neutrons over protons in the composition of the massive star; therefore the abundance of Ar, using it as an example, is greater in ejecta from recent massive stars than it was from those in early stars of only H and He; therefore Cl, to which Ar decays after the nucleosynthesis, is called a "secondary isotope". In interest of brevity, the next stage, an intricate photo-disintegration rearrangement, and the nuclear quasiequilibrium that it achieves, are referred to as ''silicon burning''. The silicon burning in the star progresses through a temporal sequence of such nuclear quasiequilibria in which the abundance of Si slowly declines and that of Ni slowly increases. This amounts to a nuclear abundance change 2 Si ≫ Ni, which may be thought of as silicon burning into nickel (“burning” in the nuclear sense). The entire silicon-burning sequence lasts about one day in the core of a contracting massive star and stops after Ni has become the dominant abundance. The final explosive burning caused when the supernova shock passes through the silicon-burning shell lasts only seconds, but its roughly 50% increase in the temperature causes furious nuclear burning, which becomes the major contributor to nucleosynthesis in the mass range 28–60  . After the final Ni stage, the star can no longer release energy via nuclear fusion, because a nucleus with 56 nucleons has the lowest
mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
per
nucleon In physics and chemistry, a nucleon is either a proton or a neutron, considered in its role as a component of an atomic nucleus. The number of nucleons in a nucleus defines the atom's mass number (nucleon number). Until the 1960s, nucleons were ...
of all the elements in the sequence. The next step up in the alpha-particle chain would be Zn. However Zn has slightly ''more'' mass per nucleon than Ni, and thus would require a thermodynamic energy ''loss'' rather than a ''gain'' as happened in all prior stages of nuclear burning. Ni (which has 28 protons) has a
half-life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...
of 6.02 days and decays via β decay to Co (27 protons), which in turn has a half-life of 77.3 days as it decays to Fe (26 protons). However, only minutes are available for the Ni to decay within the core of a massive star. This establishes Ni as the most abundant of the radioactive nuclei created in this way. Its radioactivity energizes the late
supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
light curve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph of light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude of light received on the y axis and with time on the x axis. The light is usually in a particular frequ ...
and creates the pathbreaking opportunity for gamma-ray-line astronomy. See SN 1987A light curve for the aftermath of that opportunity. Clayton and Meyer have recently generalized this process still further by what they have named ''the secondary supernova machine'', attributing the increasing radioactivity that energizes late supernova displays to the storage of increasing Coulomb energy within the quasiequilibrium nuclei called out above as the quasiequilibria shift from primarily Si to primarily Ni. The visible displays are powered by the decay of that excess Coulomb energy. During this phase of the core contraction, the potential energy of gravitational compression heats the interior to roughly three billion kelvins, which briefly maintains pressure support and opposes rapid core contraction. However, since no additional heat energy can be generated via new fusion reactions, the final unopposed contraction rapidly accelerates into a collapse lasting only a few seconds. At that point, the central portion of the star is crushed into either a
neutron star A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. white ...
or, if the star is massive enough, into a
black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...
. The outer layers of the star are blown off in an explosion triggered by the outward moving supernova shock, known as a Type II
supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
whose displays last days to months. The escaping portion of the supernova core may initially contain a large density of free neutrons, which may synthesize, in about one second while inside the star, roughly half of the elements in the universe that are heavier than iron via a rapid neutron-capture mechanism known as the ''r''-process. See below.


Nuclides synthesized

Stars with initial masses less than about eight times the sun never develop a core large enough to collapse and they eventually lose their atmospheres to become white dwarfs, stable cooling spheres of carbon supported by the pressure of degenerate electrons. Nucleosynthesis within those lighter stars is therefore limited to nuclides that were fused in material located above the final white dwarf. This limits their modest yields returned to interstellar gas to
carbon-13 Carbon-13 (13C) is a natural, stable isotope of carbon with a nucleus containing six protons and seven neutrons. As one of the environmental isotopes, it makes up about 1.1% of all natural carbon on Earth. Detection by mass spectrometry A mass ...
and
nitrogen-14 Natural nitrogen (7N) consists of two stable isotopes: the vast majority (99.6%) of naturally occurring nitrogen is nitrogen-14, with the remainder being nitrogen-15. Fourteen radioisotopes are also known, with atomic masses ranging from 10 to 25, ...
, and to isotopes heavier than iron by slow capture of neutrons (the ''s''-process). A significant minority of white dwarfs will explode, however, either because they are in a binary orbit with a companion star that loses mass to the stronger gravitational field of the white dwarf, or because of a merger with another white dwarf. The result is a white dwarf which exceeds its
Chandrasekhar limit The Chandrasekhar limit () is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The currently accepted value of the Chandrasekhar limit is about (). White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through electron degeneracy pressure, compa ...
and explodes as a synthesizing about a solar mass of radioactive Ni isotopes, together with smaller amounts of other
iron peak The iron peak is a local maximum in the vicinity of Fe ( Cr, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni) on the graph of the abundances of the chemical elements. For elements lighter than iron on the periodic table, nuclear fusion releases energy. For iron, and f ...
elements. The subsequent radioactive decay of the nickel to iron keeps Type Ia optically very bright for weeks and creates more than half of all the iron in the universe. Virtually all of the remainder of stellar nucleosynthesis occurs, however, in stars that are massive enough to end as
core collapse supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or whe ...
e. In the pre-supernova massive star this includes helium burning, carbon burning, oxygen burning and silicon burning. Much of that yield may never leave the star but instead disappears into its collapsed core. The yield that is ejected is substantially fused in last-second explosive burning caused by the shock wave launched by core collapse. Prior to core collapse, fusion of elements between silicon and iron occurs only in the largest of stars, and then in limited amounts. Thus, the nucleosynthesis of the abundant primary elements defined as those that could be synthesized in stars of initially only hydrogen and helium (left by the Big Bang), is substantially limited to core-collapse supernova nucleosynthesis.


The ''r''-process

During supernova nucleosynthesis, the ''r''-process creates very neutron-rich heavy isotopes, which decay after the event to the first stable
isotope Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers (mass numbers) ...
, thereby creating the neutron-rich stable isotopes of all heavy elements. This neutron capture process occurs in high neutron density with high temperature conditions. In the ''r''-process, any heavy nuclei are bombarded with a large
neutron flux The neutron flux, φ, is a scalar quantity used in nuclear physics and nuclear reactor physics. It is the total length travelled by all free neutrons per unit time and volume. Equivalently, it can be defined as the number of neutrons travellin ...
to form highly unstable neutron rich nuclei which very rapidly undergo
beta decay In nuclear physics, beta decay (β-decay) is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle (fast energetic electron or positron) is emitted from an atomic nucleus, transforming the original nuclide to an isobar of that nuclide. For ...
to form more stable nuclei with higher
atomic number The atomic number or nuclear charge number (symbol ''Z'') of a chemical element is the charge number of an atomic nucleus. For ordinary nuclei, this is equal to the proton number (''n''p) or the number of protons found in the nucleus of every ...
and the same
atomic mass The atomic mass (''m''a or ''m'') is the mass of an atom. Although the SI unit of mass is the kilogram (symbol: kg), atomic mass is often expressed in the non-SI unit dalton (symbol: Da) – equivalently, unified atomic mass unit (u). 1&nbs ...
. The neutron density is extremely high, about 10 neutrons per cubic centimeter. First calculation of an evolving ''r''-process, showing the evolution of calculated results with time, also suggested that the ''r''-process abundances are a superposition of differing neutron
fluence In radiometry, radiant exposure or fluence is the radiant energy ''received'' by a ''surface'' per unit area, or equivalently the irradiance of a ''surface,'' integrated over time of irradiation, and spectral exposure is the radiant exposure per un ...
s. Small fluence produces the first ''r''-process abundance peak near atomic weight but no
actinide The actinide () or actinoid () series encompasses the 15 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers from 89 to 103, actinium through lawrencium. The actinide series derives its name from the first element in the series, actinium. The inform ...
s, whereas large fluence produces the actinides
uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...
and
thorium Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft and malleable and has a high me ...
but no longer contains the abundance peak. These processes occur in a fraction of a second to a few seconds, depending on details. Hundreds of subsequent papers published have utilized this time-dependent approach. The only modern nearby supernova, 1987A, has not revealed ''r''-process enrichments. Modern thinking is that the ''r''-process yield may be ejected from some supernovae but swallowed up in others as part of the residual neutron star or black hole. Entirely new astronomical data about the ''r''-process was discovered in 2017 when the
LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Two large ...
and
Virgo Virgo may refer to: *Virgo (astrology), the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac * Virgo (constellation), a constellation *Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo *Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy * Virgo Su ...
gravitational-wave observatories discovered a merger of two neutron stars that had previously been orbiting one another. That can happen when both massive stars in orbit with one another become core-collapse supernovae, leaving neutron-star remnants. Everyone could "hear" the replay of the increasing orbital frequency as the orbit became smaller and faster owing to energy loss by gravitational waves. The localization on the sky of the source of those gravitational waves radiated by that orbital collapse and merger of the two neutron stars, creating a black hole, but with significant spun off mass of highly neutronized matter, enabled several teams to discover and study the remaining optical counterpart of the merger, finding spectroscopic evidence of ''r''-process material thrown off by the merging neutron stars. The bulk of this material seems to consist of two types: Hot blue masses of highly radioactive ''r''-process matter of lower-mass-range heavy nuclei () and cooler red masses of higher mass-number ''r''-process nuclei () rich in actinides (such as uranium, thorium, californium etc.). When released from the huge internal pressure of the neutron star, this neutron-rich ejecta expands and radiates detected optical light for about a week. Such duration of luminosity would not be possible without heating by internal radioactive decay, which is provided by ''r''-process nuclei near their waiting points. Two distinct mass regions ( and ) for the ''r''-process yields have been known since the first time dependent calculations of the ''r''-process. Because of these spectroscopic features it has been argued that ''r''-process nucleosynthesis in the Milky Way may have been primarily ejecta from neutron-star mergers rather than from supernovae.


See also


References


Other reading

* *


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Supernova Nucleosynthesis Astrophysics Nuclear physics Nucleosynthesis
Nucleosynthesis Nucleosynthesis is the process that creates new atomic nuclei from pre-existing nucleons (protons and neutrons) and nuclei. According to current theories, the first nuclei were formed a few minutes after the Big Bang, through nuclear reactions in ...