Letter to the Editor

He-detonation in sub-Chandrasekhar CO white dwarfs: A new insight into energetics and -process nucleosynthesis

¹ Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 226, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
² Departament de Fisica i Enginyeria Nuclear, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Av. Víctor Balaguer s/n, 08800 Vilanova i la Geltrú (Barcelona), Spain, and Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Ed. Nexus-201, C/ Gran Capità 2-4, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
³ Institut de Ciències de l'Espai, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain, and Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Ed. Nexus-201, C/ Gran Capità 2-4, 08034 Barcelona, Spain

Corresponding author: S. Goriely, sgoriely@astro.ulb.ac.be

Received: 13 December 2001
Accepted: 13 January 2002

Abstract

He-accreting white dwarfs with sub-Chandrasekhar mass are revisited. The impact of the use of an extended reaction network on the predicted energy production and characteristics of the detonating layers is studied. It is shown that the considered scenario can be the site of an -process combined with a p-process and with a variant of the rp-process we refer to as the pn-process. We define the conditions under which the derived distribution of the abundances of the p-nuclides in the ejecta, including the puzzling light Mo and Ru isotopes, mimics the solar-system one.