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PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv

Temperature-resolved sensitivities of 56Ni production to helium-burning reactions in pair-instability supernovae

  • Hiroki Kawashimo
  • Nobuya Nishimura
  • Yudai Suwa
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Abstract

We propose a temperature-resolved Monte Carlo (MC) approach to identify the temperature regimes in which low-energy helium-burning reaction rates most strongly affect nucleosynthesis in very massive stars that undergo pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). By performing MC simulations of PISNe, we quantify how temperature-dependent variations in key helium-burning reaction rates, i.e., the triple-α and 12C(α,γ)16O rates, influence 56Ni synthesis. Thousands of stellar evolution calculations using MESA reveal that both the 12C(α,γ)16O and triple-α reactions exhibit their strongest sensitivity at T ≃ 2.5 × 108 K, but with opposite correlation signs. We show that this temperature corresponds to the regime in which the ratio of the sampled rate multipliers is most clearly imprinted on the pre-carbon-burning C/O composition. This demonstrates that PISN nucleosynthesis can probe helium-burning reaction rates in specific low-temperature regimes.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{kawashimo2026temperatureresolved,
  title = {{Temperature-resolved sensitivities of $^56\rm Ni$ production to helium-burning reactions in pair-instability supernovae}},
  author = {Hiroki Kawashimo and Nobuya Nishimura and Yudai Suwa},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.27264},
  eprint = {2605.27264},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27264},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Temperature-resolved sensitivities of ^56Ni production to helium-burning reactions in pair-instability supernovae
AU  - Hiroki Kawashimo
AU  - Nobuya Nishimura
AU  - Yudai Suwa
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/15
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.27264
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27264
AB  - We propose a temperature-resolved Monte Carlo (MC) approach to identify the temperature regimes in which low-energy helium-burning reaction rates most strongly affect nucleosynthesis in very massive stars that undergo pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). By performing MC simulations of PISNe, we quantify how temperature-dependent variations in key helium-burning reaction rates, i.e., the triple-α and ^12C(α,γ)^16O rates, influence ^56Ni synthesis. Thousands of stellar evolution calculations using MESA reveal that both the ^12C(α,γ)^16O and triple-α reactions exhibit their strongest sensitivity at T ≃ 2.5 × 10^8 K, but with opposite correlation signs. We show that this temperature corresponds to the regime in which the ratio of the sampled rate multipliers is most clearly imprinted on the pre-carbon-burning C/O composition. This demonstrates that PISN nucleosynthesis can probe helium-burning reaction rates in specific low-temperature regimes.
ER  -