Impact of Uncertainties in Nuclear Reaction Cross Sections on p-Nucleosynthesis in Thermonuclear Supernovae

Abstract: The propagation of uncertainties in reaction cross sections and rates of neutron-, proton-, and alpha-induced reactions into the final isotopic abundances obtained in nucleosynthesis models is an important issue in studies of nucleosynthesis and Galactic Chemical Evolution. We developed a Monte Carlo method to allow large-scale postprocessing studies of the impact of nuclear uncertainties on nucleosynthesis. Temperature-dependent rate uncertainties combining realistic experimental and theoretical uncertainties are used. From detailed statistical analyses uncertainties in the final abundances are derived as probability density distributions. Furthermore, based on rate and abundance correlations an automated procedure identifies the most important reactions in complex flow patterns from superposition of many zones or tracers. The method so far was already applied to a number of nucleosynthesis processes. Here we focus on the production of p-nuclei in white dwarfs exploding as thermonuclear (type Ia) supernovae. We find generally small uncertainties in the final abundances despite of the dominance of theoretical nuclear uncertainties. A separate analysis of low- and high-density regions indicates that the total uncertainties are dominated by the high-density regions.