APS » PROLA » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 86 » Issue 16

Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3471 - 3474 (2001)

End Point of the rp Process on Accreting Neutron Stars

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H. Schatz1, A. Aprahamian2, V. Barnard2, L. Bildsten3, A. Cumming3, M. Ouellette1, T. Rauscher4, F.-K. Thielemann4, and M. Wiescher2
1Department of Physics and Astronomy and National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824
2Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
3Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
4Department of Physics and Astronomy, Universität Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland

Received 27 December 2000

We calculate the rapid proton ( rp) capture process of hydrogen burning on the surface of an accreting neutron star with an updated reaction network that extends up to Xe, far beyond previous work. In both steady-state nuclear burning appropriate for rapidly accreting neutron stars (such as the magnetic polar caps of accreting x-ray pulsars) and unstable burning of type I x-ray bursts, we find that the rp process ends in a closed SnSbTe cycle. This prevents the synthesis of elements heavier than Te and has important consequences for x-ray burst profiles, the composition of accreting neutron stars, and potentially galactic nucleosynthesis of light p nuclei.


©2001 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v86/p3471
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3471
PACS: 97.80.Jp, 26.30.+k, 97.60.Jd

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