Structure effects of 20N in elemental abundance estimations during explosive nucleosynthesis

Abstract

Most nuclei far from the valley of stability, and typically near the drip lines, exhibit exotic features that have challenged our current understanding of nuclear structure. The question we pose concerns the effect of these exotic nuclei on stellar reaction rates and nucleosynthesis. Consequently, this may significantly affect the pattern of astrophysical abundances relevant to r-process nucleosynthesis by a considerable margin. We show the effect of improved calculations for nuclear structure, especially of possible bubble structure in 20N on abundances in explosive nucleosynthesis.