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197 8ApJS. . .36. .2 85W 138 23 /7-process arelistedinTable1alongwiththeir even numbersofneutrons andprotons.Thosefew thought ofasdesignating thefactthatthesenuclei term “/7-nuclei”toreferthissetofspecies(regard- species withoddneutron and protonnumber(La are -richrelativeto other stableisotopesofthe less oftheirsynthesismechanism).The“p”maybe understood mechanismthatprobablyoccursin same element. are alsonoted.Inallthatfollows,weshallemploythe progenitors ofthe/?-nucleithroughanasyetpoorly these muchmoreabundantspeciessomehowserveas . Consequentlyallknowledgeofabundance element hasasadominantconstituent/7-process they aretherarestofallstablenuclei.Infact,nosingle chains (r-and¿-processes)thatareresponsiblefor lie ontheproton-richsideofvalleybeta- The AstrophysicalJournalSupplementSeries,36:285-304,1978February odd-particle nuclei.Possible¿-processcontributions designations astowhethertheyareeven,odd,or abundances bymassfractioninthesolarsystemand supernovae. adjacent /7-nuclei,anditisgenerallyacceptedthat abundances thatare10totimeslargerthan r- and¿-processnucleiinthesolarsystemhave producing thebulkofheavyelements.Asagroup solar-system measurements(Cameron1973).Typically, systematics forthesespeciesisbasedentirelyupon stability andarebypassedbytheneutroncapture stable nuclearisotopeswithmassnumberA>1Athat © 1978.TheAmericanAstronomicalSociety.Allrightsreserved.PrintedinU.S.A. It isreadilyapparentthatmost ofthesenucleihave Those isotopestraditionallyattributedtothe The “/?-process”isotopesor“/7-nuclei”arethose © American Astronomical Society •Provided by theNASA DataSystem 9 produces anabundancepatternthatdisplaysstrikingsimilaritiestoofthe/7-processnuclei characterized bypeaktemperaturesintherange2.0to3.0x10K.Atthesea is examined.Aparticularlyinterestingcontextforthissynthesisfoundtobeexplosiveevents that haveexperiencedheliumandperhapscarbonburningpriortoexplosion.Implicationsfor in thesolarsystem.Thelargeprotondensitiesusuallyrequiredforsuchsynthesisarenotneeded. series ofphotodisintegrationreactionsoperatinguponadistributionr-and¿-processseeds discussion ofothercurrent/7-processmodelsispresented. Subject headings::abundancessupernovae structure,presupernovaevolution,andcosmochronologyarediscussedacritical Requisite conditionsforthismodelareexpectedtooccurnaturallyinthosezonesofsupernovae Lick Observatory,BoardofStudiesinAstronomyandAstrophysics,UniversityCalifornia,SantaCruz The nucleosyntheticoriginoftherareproton-richisotopes,usuallycalled“^-process” I. INTRODUCTION University ofCalifornia,LawrenceLivermoreLaboratory,Livermore,California Received 1976December27;accepted1977August12 THE ^-PROCESSINSUPERNOVAE W. M.Howard S. E.WOOSLEY ABSTRACT AND 2 92112144 13 180 2 112 16492144 115 -3 /7-nuclei wereassembledhavebeenasubjectof /?-process areevennuclei,afactwhichpresumably Audouze 1970;Hainebach, Schramm,andBlake (/?, y)and(y,n)reactionsoperatingonapreexisting conversion ofheavyelements into/7-nuclei,including local hydrodynamictimescale(10-100s).Since and Brihaye1969;Joukoff 1969;Agnese,LaCamera, (Cameron 1959;Reevesand Stewart1965;Arnould that areshieldedfromproductionbyneutroncapture. 2.5 billiondegrees,andprotondensitiesofroughly and suggestedthatfortemperaturesontheorderof reactions, BFHnamedthesethe“/7-processnuclei” layers oftypeIIsupernovae.Thereacombination that thesenucleiareproducedinthehydrogen-rich controversy foralmost20years.Cameron(1957)and relative abundancepeaksatMo,Sn,m,and where thesynthesisoccurs.Thissensitivitytonuclear reflects thedecreasedstabilityofanucleuswith that allnucleiproducedinsizableamountsbythe the only/7-nucleiwithoddmassnumbers(Inand reactions(Frank-Kamenetskii 1961; Because ofthedominantroleplayedbyproton binding energyisfurtherreflectedintheexistenceof and Ta)areofconsiderablysmallerabundance, set ofr-and¿-processseedscanproduceanuclei Burbidge etal.(1957,henceforthBFH)proposed shells, andSnhasaclosedprotonshell. an unpairedprotonorneutronintheenvironment Er. ThenucleiMoandSmhaveclosedneutron Sn) maybemadebythe¿-process.Thusitappears 1976); positroncapture and photo-betaprocesses 1957 manymechanismshavebeenstudiedforthe 100 gcm,suchconversioncouldtakeplaceona The astrophysicalcircumstancesunderwhichthe 197 8ApJS. . .36. .2 85W 7 114115 113116 1076 936 196 184 180 174 168 164 158 166 144 138 162 138 132 136 130 126 124 116 108 106 120 114 112 102 113 figurations. Onewouldexpect theproductnucleo- objection tothistypeofsynthesis isthatatthehigh nucleus thanisreflectedin Table1.Anothersevere functions ofindividual nuclear excited-statecon- O* y)>(p,(y,«),p\anda)(Ito1961;Frank- synthesis tovarymuchmore sharplyfromnucleusto would proceedatratesthat areextremelysensitive interactions inducedbythehigh-temperaturephoton candidates for/7-nucleosynthesis.Suchreactions and positronbathsalsoappeartobeveryunlikely vironments spallationreactionsproveineffectivein AT; Arnould1976).Forrealisticastrophysicalen- accounting forallbuttherarestof/7-nuclei.Weak Truran 1973;Audouzeand1975,henceforth Kamenetskii 1961;Malkiel1963;AmietandZeh and Wataghin1969);thethermonuclearreactions beta-decay. capturesonCdthatleaveinitsgroundstate. the isomericstateofCd.AlsoSnisformedby5% 1967, 1968;Macklin1970;TruranandCameron1972; on Pdismuchlessthan7x10yr. Zr ismuchlessthan1.5x10yr. Hg... 98 96 190p^ 94 92 Os ...' 180^ 84 Ta... Hf... 78 74 Yb... Er ! 162p Dy... Dy... Sm... La... Gd§.. Ce... Ba... Ce... Ba... Xe... Xe... Snt.. Cdt.. Cd... Te Snt.. Sn... Pd... 286 Int... r Ru... Ru... Mo*. Mo. Sr..., 151 Kr... Se. . The /»-ProcessNuclei(AbundancesfromCameron1973) § On5-branchsinceasignificantfractionofSmwill t Some5-processcontributionifabranchproceedsthrough t Bypassedby5-processiftimescaleforneutroncapture * Bypassedby5-processiftimescaleforneutroncaptureon © American Astronomical Society •Provided by theNASA Astrophysics DataSystem Nucleus Odd particle Odd particle Designation TABLE 1 Particle Even Even Even Even Odd Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Odd Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Even Mass Fraction Solar System 2.76 (-12) 6.00 (-13) 8.17 (-13) 9.39 (-13) 2.18 (-12) 1.12 (-14) 7.12 (-13) 2.43 (-11) 1.60 (-12) 1.18 (-12) 9.83 (-12) 2.03 (-11) 2.18 (—11) WOOSLEY ANDHOWARD 1.39 (-11) 1.20 (-12) 7.49 (-12) 1.24 (-12) 3.50 (-11) 4.61 (-11) 1.37 (-12) 6.55 (-11) 9.36 (-11) 1.49 (-11) 1.52 (—11) 3.39 (-11) 8.40 (-11) 2.43 (-10) 1.88 (-11) 3.08 (-11) 1.65 (-11) 8.22 (-10) 3.06 (-10) 3.13 (-10) 1.41 (-9) 1.04 (-9) 2 144 208 n 2 , andprobablycarbon. Intheirsimplestform our resultsareindependent oftheexactcomposition of atypeIIsupernovathat haveexhaustedhydrogen, the /7-nucleiasoccurringmost naturallyinthosezones fact, weviewtherequisite conditions forsynthesizing usually requiredforthe/7-process donotappear.In reactions playnorole.Thusthelargeprotondensities those ofAT,BHF,andothersinthat(p,y)(/?,n) example, cananddoesaffecttheproductionoflighter species likeSm.Ourcalculationsalsodifferfrom In ourcalculationstheseedabundanceofPb,for nuclear chargeZsolelyfromseedhaving< . the y-processdoesnotformaproductnucleusof though theygaveverylittlequantitativedetail.Unlike other scenariosforthe/7-processthatutilizeprotons, products. AmietandZeh(1967,1968)described a similar mechanismforproducingthe/7-nuclei,al- (y> \p\and(y,a)reactionsthatacttostripdown nuclei. Thetransformationoccursviaaseriesof resembles closelythesolarabundancepatternof/7- or “photodisintegrate”theseednucleiintolighter roughly 1sintoadistributionofelementsthat degrees) willbetransformedonatimescaleof having radiationtemperaturesintherange2.1< Tq <3.2(whereTistemperatureinbillionsof called the“y-process.”itisshownthatadistribution the synthesisof/7-nucleiwhichismoreproperly of heavyelementssubjectedtoahotphotonbath these modelsmaybeunjustified.Thisisatopicwe p shall discussingreaterdetailthenextsection. mathematically successful,mayrequirephysicalcon- Furthermore, severaloftheassumptionsinherentin ditions thatcannoteasilyberealizedinnature. ever, itisourcontentionthatthesemodels,while features oftheabundancepattern/7-nuclei.How- important role.Inparticular,thesuccessofATis -rich regionswhere(/?,y)reactionsplayan far moststudiesofthissorthavefollowedthelead quite impressiveinreproducingthequahtative candidates fortheproductionof/7-nuclei.Thus BFH andCameron(1957)inlimitingthemselvesto nucleosyntheses insupernovaeappearmoreattractive reprocessing. ejected intotheinterstellarmediumwithoutsignificant likely thattheproductsofthisevolutioncanbe ways allpreviousattemptstomakethe/7-nuclei by Arnould(1976)ofthe/7-processduringhydrostatic This sameobjectionalsoappliestoarecenttreatment within astar.Anyexplosionsignificantlypowerfulto during stablestellarevolution,itdoesnotappear eject themwouldprobablymodifythecomposition. processes leavetheproductnucleistilltightlybound the timerequiredforsignificantweakinteraction. 9 burning.Whilehisworksurpassesinmany time scalethatis,inallbutafewcases,shorterthan notably (y,n),woulddestroytheseedabundanceina Finally, onemustconfronttheproblemthatsuch interactions occuratreasonablerates(cf.Reeves requiredtomakephoton-inducedweak and Stewart1965),photodisintegrationreactions, In §IIIanalternativemechanismispresentedfor For thesereasonsmodelsbaseduponexplosive Vol. 36 197 8ApJS. . .36. .2 85W 2 62 9 1/2 18-1 5-3 9 9 -3 -32 4-3 p-nucleosynthesis insupernovae.Inparticular,what ^-nuclei atanearlyuniquevalueoftemperature.The tures . to firstconsiderthestatusofothercurrentmodelsfor and densityofthezonestreated.Onlyabundances of seednucleiandthedistributionphotontempera- that existintheliteratureallsharefollowingset are theweaknessesincalculationsofBFH,AT, and othersthatleadustosearchforalternativesites and resultsofthesecalculations,however,itisuseful No. 2,1978 We findseriousflawsineachoftheseassumptions. neutron reactionsoccurringonheavyseednucleiand abalanceisattainedwherebyphoto- of ‘canonical”assumptions(cf.BFH,AT): proton captureonlighterseednucleiproceedat attain temperaturesinexcessof2x10K.Atthis to thelocalhydrodynamictimescale,r=446/(p) comparable rates,makingpossiblethesynthesisofall and methodsforproducingthesenuclei? expansionvelocitiesimplyanenergyinputof generate onlyabout10ergsg.Observedsuper- contained intheradiationfieldpergramofbaryon zones ofanycommonastrophysicalevent?Itdoesnot abundance distributionofheavyelements. synthesis. time scalefortheexpansionisassumedtobeequal of asupernovathatduringtheirexplosiveejection have beenenhancedbyafactor of100!Ifnoenhance- is theamountofmaterial persupernovathatAT tion fieldofthesametemperature. Thevalue0.01M© the energyrequirementsforheatingroughly0.01M© Another wayofseeingthissameresultistoconsider the baryonmassdensitymustbep^10gcm . zones responsibleforthe/7-process,alowerlimitto hydrogen burningitself,nuclearreactionscan mass wouldbe for timesaslong10secondsinthehydrogen-rich ment hasoccurred,acorrespondingly largermass the presentabundanceseven iftheseedabundances predict mustexperience/7-processing toaccountfor appear likely.Undersuchconditionstheenergy of baryonsto2x10Kinequilibriumwitharadia- supernova cansomehowbeconcentratedinthose similar magnitude.Unlesstheenergyoutputofa 2 x10KhasbeeninsertedforT.Exclusiveof where pisthematterdensityingcmandavalueof s forpingcm.Valuesoftherange10to 10 gcmareusuallyemployed. HD0 b b b 9 Before discussingingreaterdetailthemethodology Models oftheexplosive^-processinhydrogenzones 2. Weakinteractionsarenegligibleduringthe 3. Thedistributionofseednucleiislikethesolar 1. Therequiredsynthesisoccursinhydrogenzones Can temperaturesashigh2x10Kbeachieved © American Astronomical Society •Provided by theNASA Astrophysics DataSystem 231 E =aT*lp1.21x10/ergsg",(1) ybPö n. PROBLEMSWITHCURRENTEXPLOSIVE a) ThermodynamicConditions MODELS /^-PROCESS INSUPERNOVAE 2 3 43 23 -3 3 52 2 9 2+ 3- must bespecified.Thismassandanaveragedensity energy is imply avolumeofradiationenergythatmustbe weak interactionswerenegligible. required. Atypicalsupernovaexplosiongenerates deposited withinthat0.01M©ofbaryons.That computed byBFHassuming aproton-linkequilib- earlier work.Thelimitingprotonseparationenergy This waslongcomparedtoassumption(i),andhence minimum expectedpositrondecaytimeofabout10s. gen envelopesofordinarystars.Typicaldensitiesatthe 0.01 M,thedensityrequiredisactuallymuchlarger. those zones.Sincerealisticallyonlyasmallfraction put ofasupernovacansomehowbeconcentratedin namely T=2.0andp = 10gcm”,inequation rium calculatedatT= 2.5 andp=10gcm". where (p,y)additionwill stop,forexample,was actions, eventhoughthecircumstancesnowadays quent workshavealsochosentoignoreweakinter- result ofassumptions(ii)and(iii)wastoyielda elements characteristicofforbiddendecays.The energy ofanyproductnucleusbecomeslessthan4.3 (i) thetimescalefor/7-processis10to100seconds, neglect wasbaseduponacertainsetofassumptions: r- and¿-seedinto/?-nucleitheirprogenitors.This for suchanextremetemperatureisshort(^0.1s), base oftheheliumburningshellshighlyevolved cm isrequiredinthosezonesspecifiedbyATasthe (Schramm andArnett1975).Weconcludep^10g emissionandkineticenergyofexpansion approximately 10ergs,mostofwhichgoesinto If noseedenrichmenthasoccurredalargervalueis (26) ofBFHnowyieldsS =2.6MeVinsteadofthe Use ofthemoremodernconditions employedbyAT, dictated forthesynthesisdifferinkeywaysfrom MeV, and(iii)allweakinteractionshavematrix (ii) protoncaptureceaseswhentheseparation Truran, andSparks1975).However,thetimescale extreme cases,beheatedto2x10K(Starrfield, be foundonthesurfaceofanaccretingwhitedwarf, therefore seemsunlikely.Largeprotondensitiescan burning shellswouldbeagreatdealsmaller.The exist?Certainlytheydonotexistinthehydro- site of/7-processsynthesisevenifseedenrichmenthas and (e~,v)thatwouldoccurduringtheconversionof BFH chosetoignoretheweakinteractions(ev) and theamountofmaterialprocessedissmall. of thetotalenergyasupernovacanbedepositedin occurred andalargefractionofthetotalenergyout- and duringanovaoutburstthishydrogenmay,insome occurrence oftherequisiteconditioninsupernovae Howard 1976).Densitiesintheoverlyinghydrogen stars areontheorderof10gcm(Lamb,Iben,and q 9b 9 b b p Where intheGalaxydohydrogenzonesofsuch Following thesepreliminarycalculations,allsubse- In theirearlycalculationsof/7-processsynthesis Ey b) RoleofWeakInteractions 54 2.4 x10M ergs 0.01M• Pb0 287 (2) 197 8ApJS. . .36. .2 85W rocess 56 2 /7-nuclei innonenrichedzonesplacessevereenergy bathsufficiently intense toinducenuclear vented, butthenatureofseeddistributionand it explodes.Thereisnoapriorireasontobelievethe parameters remainsevereproblems. itself probablychangesresultsofthe/7-processvery i.e., notther-processseed(Arnould1976).Thisin which areduetothe¿-processshouldbesoenhanced, ¿-processing inornearthezonesconsidered.One to energeticsandweakinteractionscanbecircum- properly calledthe“y“P-”Wewillfindthat composition, andevolutionarystateofthestarwhen requirements ontheexplosion.Therefore,more processing hasoccurredduringthepreexplosive for reasonsthatwillshortlybecomeobviousismore dances. distribution shouldresemblesolar¿-processabun- abundances isacomplicatedfunctionofthemass, mate, isthedistributionofelementsininterior little sincether-processnucleiarenotespecially hancements ofheavyelements,presumablybyprior realistic approachtypifiedbyATdemandslargeen- tion ofabundantseedmaterialupwardfromFe sensitivity oftheresults tounknownexplosion objections raisedintheprevioussectionwithregard of starsthathavedone¿-processing.Thisset stantially, however,andwhatisverydifficulttoesti- important seeds.Whatcanalterthesituationsub- obvious implicationisthatonlythoseseednuclei evolution, itmaybeanexcellentapproximation,but, heavy elementsasseedsforthe/7-process?Ifnos- into thelighter/?-nucleiisadistinctpossibility. considered atleastforthelighternuclei.Thepropaga- proton driplinewillbeformed. as mentionedbefore(§II, relatively slowlyvaryingfunctionoftemperatureand is thea-particleseparationenergy,andDagaina where Aisthereducedmass,roughlyequalto4, accompaniedbycharged-particle Rough estimatesfortheconstantsCandDcanbe and itbecomesenergeticallymorefeasibleforthe nuclear properties.Asimilarexpressioncouldbe emission isincreasing.Forexample,therateof proton ora-particleisdecreasingandtheratefor Kp +Ka>Kn(seeTable7).Theresultsofsucha (y, d)reactiononanucleuswithZprotonsisroughly larger, andtherateofphoto-neutronreaction each neutronejectedSbecomes,ontheaverage, slower. Atthesametimeseparationenergyfora (Fowler, Caughlan,andZimmerman1967).With tion energyofthespeciesunderconsideration where Cisaslowlyvaryingfunctionoftemperature and nuclearpropertiesSistheneutronsepara- that thedominantphoton-inducedreactionwillbe 9 (y, ri).Therateofneutronejectionisgivenby the r-and¿-processesnuclearsystematicsaresuch reactions. Forstableelementsthatareproducedby n 9 ypya yp na na9q ypyayn n n 5/61/31 = DTexp[-r/r-11.6055(MeY)/r]s", 9a A moreaccuratecalculationofthebranchingpoint 3/21 A =CTexp[-11.605S(MeV)/:r]s",(3) yn9n 21/32/3 r =4.2487(4ZZ)^10.7(Z-2),(4) a Vol. 36 (5) 197 8ApJS. . .36. .2 85W No. 2,1978 branching. Nucleiwithoddneutronnumbersthathave y-process solongasoneconsiders(i)temperaturesin in theirdestruction. reactions onsuchnucleiisalwayslargeanddominates masses greaterthanthenumbersgiveninTable2are numbers ofneutronsmayalsobesitessignificant interactions willbecompletelynegligibleforthe not branchingpointsbecausetherateof(y,n) tory half-livesofspeciesinTable2. the rangeof2-3billiondegreesorlessand(ii)time element reachesthecriticalpointgiveninequation particle. Ifitejectsneutronsanotherwaitingpointis feasible toejectneutronsorittoomayacharged in thecaseofalphaemission.Theproductnucleus in thenuclearchargeofelement,adecreaseby2 scale valuecomesfromanexaminationofthelabora- eventually reachedwherecharged-particleemission thus formedmayonceagainfinditenergetically (5), furtherphotoninteractionwillleadtoachange scales lessthanabout100seconds.Thelimitingtime- interest, however,isthenucleosynthesisthatoccurs equilibrium isattained. , andalphas.Astateofnuclearstatistical mixture ofiron-groupnucleiandfreeneutrons, flow ofmaterialdownfrom leadtowardironformsa . Insteadofasinglenucleus onemayenvisiona process occurs(see§IV).Whatisofconsiderable particle-producing reactionsinthesitewhere form anegligibleperturbationonthemoredominant ejected bythisy-process.Theywillpresumedlyjust occurs andtheprocesscontinues.Ultimately not sointenseastototallyreduce allheavyelementsto for valuesoftemperatureandtimescalethatare original heavynucleusisphotodissociatedintoa sufficient toinducesome nuclear transformationyet of interestherenorarethefreeparticlesthat distribution ofseednuclei extendinguptolead,all subject tothesameintense radiationbath.Thenthe One immediateconsequenceofTable2isthatweak Once thephotodisintegrationflowforagiven The extremecaseoftotalphotodissociationisnot © American Astronomical Society •Provided by theNASA Astrophysics DataSystem Branching PointsforHeavyElementsUndergoingPhotodisintegrationatT=2.5 9 /^PROCESS INSUPERNOVAE TABLE 2 196190 ^-nuclei butanuclearchargelargerby2.Forexample, various pointswheretheflowisimpededbecausesome to someparticularseednucleus.Hereandthereare will accumulateatornearthesewaitingpoints, near thebranchpointsgiveninTable2.Material element ofnuclearchargeZthelongestphoto- nucleus hasanunusuallylonglifetime.Foreach stream withmanytributaries,eachstretchingback temperatures, namely2^r3,waitingpoints heaviest nucleiconsidered.Theveryinterestingaspect 2.5) thedominantphotodisintegrationflowsfor especially fornucleiwithaclosedneutronorproton nuclei arepartiallybutnottotallyphotodisintegrated. that woulddecaytop-nucleibypositronemission which showsforarepresentativetemperature(T= disintegration lifetimesontheflowpathtendtooccur progenitors havingthesameatomicweightas after ejection.Thisrangeoftemperaturesisalso odd-particle nuclei. shell. Verylittlematerialwillaccumulateatoddand that thiscorrelationhadonly todowiththelifetime That suchacorrelationdoesindeedexistwaspointed correlation betweentheobservedsolarabundances not haveoriginatedinaproton-richenvironmentat down totheelementerbium.Suchacorrespondence For higherZthecorrespondenceistoproton-rich of specialinterestbecauseatsuchtemperaturesheavy of suchascenarioisthatforreasonablerange all butinsteadinaphoton-dominatedprocess. suggests thatthenucleiattributedtop-processmay For Z<66thep-nucleithemselvesarewaitingpoints. seem tocorrespondeitherthep-nucleiornuclei several p-nucleimightreflect thenuclearpropertiesof also neglectedthepossibility thattheabundancesof energy) andignoredtherole of(y,p)anda).He against (y,n)reactions(and henceneutronseparation out byMacklin(1970).However, Macklinsuggested of thep-nucleiandtheirphotodisintegrationrates. Hg isproducedasPb,Pt,andsoon 9 Q This behaviorisqualitativelyillustratedinFigure1, If thisconjectureiscorrect,onemightexpecta 289 197 8ApJS. . .36. .2 85W + 6 290 theless, Macklin’splotsofabundanceandneutron nuclei and,whereappropriate,theirproton-rich progenitors ratherthanthoseofthemselves.Never- alpha flows,respectively.Inthismassregionandattemperaturethep-nucleiareprimarilyproducedasproton-richprogenitors disintegration rateA=+forthep- separation energyshowstrikingcorrelation. solar abundancepatterntoaplotoftotalphoto- which decaybypositronemission(arrowslabeledß)aftertheexplosion. symbols representallthestableisotopesofgivenelement.Arrowslabeledwith“/i”or“a”photo-neutronand photo- disintegration. with closedneutronorproton shells. Theabundanceofthep-nucleiappearstobestrongly anticorrelated withtheirrateofphoto- .Alsoshownisa plotoftheirsolarabundancebynumberrelativeto10silicon atoms.Thearrowsindicate/^-nuclei ynypa A moreproperapproachwouldbetocomparethe Fig. 1.—Photodisintegrationflowsinthevicinityofheavy/?-nuclei{doublesquares).Thecircleslabeledwithelemental Fig. 2.—Totalphotodisintegration ratesAforthep-nucleiandtheirproton-richprogenitors atT=3.0asafunctionoftheir 9 © American Astronomical Society •Provided by theNASA Astrophysics DataSystem "Fe" il 4 3 np io 1^1 densities ofroughlypx10-10gcmforsuch (Arnett 1969;WAC).Argumentsbaseduponnucleo- still largervaluesoftemperature.Suchtemperatures working hypothesisregardlessoftheexactvalue synthesis andpresupernovastructureyieldarangeof peak photontemperatureassumed.Thecurrent knowledge ofsupernovastructureandevolutionis ya feel thatexplosivecarbon andoxygenburningform from anexactspecification ofitssite.Thus,whilewe present time.Thissimple approximationhasthe accurate asanyotherwe might caretomakeatthe sufficiently uncertainthatparametrizationisas the mostreasonablecontext forourcalculations,the advantage ofdecouplingthe treatmentofthey-process m 9m 9 T r m 12 We nowmovefromthequalitativeconsiderations In allthatfollowswewilladoptr=1sasa r TT =3thdV(247rGp)l33S-s.(7) mP tí) ResultsofNumericalCalculations TU/) =Texp(-i/r).(6) dnr 291 197 8ApJS. . .36. .2 85W radiation bathhavingatemperaturehistorygivenby photodisintegration liesnearthevalleyofbeta are giveninTable4.Foreachpeakexplosiontem- equations (6)and(7)forarangeofpeaktemperatures sidered in§Hid).Thiscompositionwasexposedtoa calculations, asolar-systemdistribution(Cameron interactions wereignoredbecauseoftheshorttime of 2.1