C12(a,g) rate study

The results on this page are from a senior thesis project by Matthew Michael Boyes
in collaboration with Alexander Heger & Stan E. Woosley.

Senior Thesis Thesis_Boyes.pdf 4.9 MB

Printable Version Thesis_Boyes_print.ps 56 MB

Posters

• "The 12C(a,g)16O Reaction Rate: Evolution & Nucleosynthesis of Massive Stars"
  by Matt Boyes, Alexander Heger, & S.E. Woosley, Presented at the IV Latin American Symposium on Nuclear Physics & Meeting of the Nuclear Physicists of the American and Japanese Physical Societies 2001
  PS or PDF

Information

The movies are composed from a series of Kippenhahn Diagrams, i.e., stellar structure as a function of time, which vary one parameter of the star. All sequences use the same color coding:

	convection
	semiconvection

net nuclear energy generation (burning plus neutrino losses) in erg g-1 s-1

0

>10-1

>10 0

>10 1

>10 2

>10 3

>10 4

>10 5

>10 6

>10 7

>10 8

>10 9

>1010

>1011

>1012

>1013

>1014

net nuclear energy loss (burning plus neutrino losses) in erg g-1 s-1

0

<-10-1

<-10 0

<-10 1

<-10 2

<-10 3

<-10 4

<-10 5

<-10 6

<-10 7

<-10 8

<-10 9

<-1010

<-1011

<-1012

<-1013

<-1014

A sample image explaning the different burning stages.

How to play the movies.

Movies

The movies magnify the evolution of the helium core starting at end of central helium burning till core collapse.

The movie shows the evolution of the helium core till from end of central helium burning till core collapse. Convection is shown as green hatching, semiconvection as red cross hatching. Specific energy generation (blue) and energy losses (pink; mostly by plasma neutrinos), are shown as color shading and each "level" of higher color intensity represents an order of magnitude higher value, in erg per gram and second, starting at 1/10 erg per gram and second.

Plots

• Large Grid
  
• Small Grid
  

Acknowledgements: This work has been supported by the NSF (AST-9731569, INT-9726315), NASA (NAG5-8128), the DOE (B347885, W-7405-ENG-48), and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (FLF-1065004).

Matt Boyes Monday, 01-Oct-2001 13:34:59 PDT