Thermonuclear Reaction Rates for Reactions Leading to N = 28 Nuclei

Abstract

Nuclear reaction cross sections derived from statistical-model calculations have been used in the calculation of thermonuclear reaction rates for 36 nuclei at temperatures that are representative of the interiors of evolving stars and supernovae as nucleosynthesis approaches the production of nuclei with N = 28. The statistical-model calculations used optical-model parameters in the particle channels which had been selected to give the best overall agreement between theoretical and experimental cross sections for reactions on stable target nuclei in the mass and energy ranges of importance for the stellar conditions of interest. The optical-model parameters used, and the stellar reaction rates obtained, are tabulated. Comparisons are made between these stellar rates and those from other statistical-model calculations in the literature.