A KINETIC-MODEL FOR RAPID NUCLEOSYNTHESIS

A kinetic approach that takes account of reactions with neutrons, prot ons, and alpha-particles, as well as beta-decay, is proposed to study nucleosynthesis. As a test problem, this approach is applied to rapid- nucleosynthesis calculations for different model conditions, making it possible to avoid a number of simplifications commonly used to calcul ate the r-process. The reasons for the appearance and smoothing of an odd effect in the calculated abundance curve are analyzed. Conditions under which the results of calculations depend only weakly on the meth od of representing the neutron cross-sections are determined, allowing the requirements on the quality of the neutron data to be relaxed at high temperatures and neutron densities. Our calculations for differen t conditions lead us to conclude that the boundary conditions play a c rucial role in forming the structure of the abundance curve. It is sho wn that under certain conditions, all r-elements beyond the iron peak can be produced during a single astrophysical event in the presence of a neutron source and seed nuclei. A number of original algorithms are used to perform the calculations.