Following nuclei through nucleosynthesis: A novel tracing technique

Astrophysical nucleosynthesis is a family of diverse processes by which atomic nuclei undergo nuclear reactions and decay to form new nuclei. The complex nature of nucleosynthesis, which can involve as many as tens of thousands of interactions between thousands of nuclei, makes it difficult to study any one of these interactions in isolation using standard approaches. In this work, we present a new technique, nucleosynthesis tracing, that we use to quantify the relative fraction of nuclear abundances that pass through individual nuclear reaction, decay, and fission processes at any point during nucleosynthesis. We apply this technique to study fission and beta(-) decay as they occur in the rapid neutron capture (r) process of nucleosynthesis.

Automated summary

Astrophysical nucleosynthesis is a complex process involving interactions between thousands of nuclei. A new technique, nucleosynthesis tracing, is used in this work to quantify the fraction of nuclear abundances passing through individual nuclear reactions. This technique is applied to study fission and beta(-) decay in the rapid neutron capture (r) process of nucleosynthesis.