Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme
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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne
HK 33: Nuclear Astrophysics IV
HK 33.5: Talk
Thursday, March 19, 2026, 14:45–15:00, PHIL A 602
Role of composition and neutrino spectra in the collapse of massive stars — •Justin Schäfer1,2, Gabriel Martínez-Pinedo1,2, and Oliver Just2 — 1Institut für Kernphysik (Theoriezentrum), TU Darmstadt — 2GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt
The collapse of massive stars after iron core formation is determined by electron captures on a broad range of nuclei. To understand this, a description of electron captures and accurate determination of the composition is crucial. In this work we aim to explore the impact of compositional changes on the deleptonization rate, most important nuclei, and neutrino luminosities. We show that different treatments of partition functions, which govern the distribution of nuclear states at given temperatures and densities, influence the individual composition, and thus most important nuclei, substantially. However, the deleptonization rate and therefore the evolution of the collapsing star is rather unaffected by the detailed composition of matter, leading to similar neutrino luminosities. It turns out that the neutrino spectra, rather than precise rates, determine the final conditions in the core. This work is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) - Project-ID 279384907 - SFB 1245, and MA 4248/3-1 and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union*s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC Advanced Grant KILONOVA No.885281).
Keywords: Core-collapse supernovae; Neutrino spectra; Electron capture rates; Composition; Nuclear partition function