Lepton emission rates of [formula omitted]v isotopes under stellar conditions

Abstract

In astrophysical conditions prevalent during the late times of stellar evolution, lepton (e− and e+) emission processes compete with the corresponding lepton capture processes. Prior to the collapse, lepton emissions significantly affect the cooling of the core and reduce its entropy. Therefore the lepton emission rates for Fe-group nuclei serve as an important input for core-collapse simulations of high-mass stars. From earlier simulation studies, isotopes of vanadium (V) have great astrophysical significance in regard to their weak-decay rates which substantially affect Ye (fraction of lepton to baryon number) during the final developmental stages of massive stars. The current study involves the computation of the weak lepton emission (LE) rates for V-isotopes by employing the improved deformed proton-neutron Quasi-particle Random Phase Approximation (pn-QRPA) model. The mass numbers of the selected isotopes range from 43 to 64. The LE rates on these isotopes have been estimated for a broad spectrum of density and temperature under astrophysical conditions. The ranges considered for density and temperature are 101 to 1011 (g/cm3) and 107 to 3 × 1011 (K), respectively. The lepton emission rates from the present study were also compared to the rates previously estimated by using the independent-particle model (IPM) and large-scale shell model (LSSM). IPM rates are generally bigger than QRPA rates, while LSSM rates are overall in good comparison with the reported rates. We attribute these differences to correct placement of GT centroid in LSSM and QRPA models.