Nuclear uncertainties associated with the ejecta of a black-hole accretion disk

April APS

Contributed presentation on 03/2025

The simulation of heavy element nucleosynthesis requires input from yet-to-be-measured nuclear properties. The uncertainty in the values of these off-stability nuclear properties propagates to uncertainties in the predictions of elemental and isotopic abundances. However, for any given astrophysical explosion, there are many different trajectories, i.e. temperature and density histories, experienced by outflowing material and thus different nuclear properties can come into play. We consider combined nucleosynthesis results from 460,000 trajectories from a black hole accretion disk and the find spread in elemental predictions due solely to unknown nuclear properties to be a factor of a few. We analyze the relative spread in model predictions and show that these uncertainties persist throughout the bulk of the ejected material. Our work provides further motivation for experimental campaigns on short-lived nuclei at radioactive beam facilities around the world.

LA-UR-25-22268