The effect of β-decay properties on the r-process nucleosynthesis

The heaviest elements in nature are synthesized in the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). The r-process is believed to occur in hot, dense, and neutron-rich environments, such as ejecta from compact binary mergers and some types of core-collapse supernovae. The yield of the nucleosynthesis event sensitively depends on the balance of various kinds of nuclear reactions and decays— neutron capture, photodissociation, β-decay, fission, and more.

In a typical nuclear reaction network calculation that computes the evolution of the abundance of nuclei, nuclear reaction rates (e.g. neutron capture rates) are treated as temperature-dependent, on the other hand, β-decay rates are fixed. In this talk, the effect of the finite-temperature β-decay rates on the r-process nucleosynthesis, based on the covariant energy density functional theory and the finite-temperature proton-neutron relativistic quasiparticle random-phase approximation (FT-PNRQRPA), will be discussed.

Other topics related to β-decay in the r-process, such as the effect of newly calculated β-decay tables and the ongoing calculation of β-delayed neutron emission probabilities, will also be touched upon.