1. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Impact of Nuclear Input on X-ray bursts Richard H. Cyburt Ryan Ferguson Zach Meisel Scott Warren Matthew Amthor Karl Smith Hendrik Schatz

2. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Outline Motivation nuclear physics in astrophysics X-ray bursts Astrophysics in nuclear physics Conclusions

3. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Motivation Big Bang Nucleosynthesis CR Nucleosynthesis s-process r-process p-process nova supernova x-ray bursts stars Origin of Elements! Explosion Light Curves!

4. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 A Closer Look Nuclear Structure impacts nuclear astrophysics!

5. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Let’s consider X-ray bursts They’re explosions! They’re on neutron stars! They go off regularly! We can see ~1000s of them! Sounds pretty cool, but… How easy are they to understand?

6. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Type I X-ray bursts Accreting H/He  but not too fast n.s. fairly old  low B-field  slow rotation Thermonuclear runaway

7. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 rp-process Helium burns to Carbon rapid (p,  )/( ,p)/  + decays Up the N=Z line on nuclide chart Peak brightness ~56

8. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Movie

9. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Nuclear input Thermonuclear reaction rates  Not well covered by expt.  Relies heavily on theory  Which relies on nuclide masses weak decay rates  Need  & T dependent rates  Good expt. g.s. coverage Time lag incorporating new input

10. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 rp-process db summary expt based rates thry based rates

11. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 New Theory Rates (p,  )‏ Within a factor of 2

12. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 New Theory Rates ( ,p)‏

13. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Impact of New Rates

14. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Theory Rates Rates are all Rauscher rates Small impact w/ Rauscher rates What about other models? They need to be publically available!

15. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 JINA Reaclib Database stores rxn rates in standard form remembers old versions Online interface easily accessible Provides link of communication

16. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 www.nscl.msu.edu/~nero/db

17. SNP2008, Ohio University, July 8-11 Conclusions Goal: nuke input not dom. uncertainty  Use x-ray bursts to understand n.s.  constrain exotic physics Nuclear astro. gaining much ground  new expt. facilities/techniques  large computational efforts  Theories ever-scrutinized