[mesa-users] ni56 beta decay rate is function of temperature? and goes to 0 for logT < 8?

Josiah Schwab jwschwab at berkeley.edu
Wed Oct 23 14:39:22 EDT 2013


Hi Bill,

I'm pretty sure that your confusion is because these weak tables are
calculated for fully ionized Ni-56, but your intuition for Ni-decay is
from SNe ejecta where the nickel is only lightly ionized.

If I have a little free time later, I can give a more thorough answer,
but I don't think you should worry about this (not a bug).

Josiah

Bill Paxton writes:

> Hi,
>
> My turn to ask a question -- I have a model that manages to get ni56 up to regions of lower temperature compared to the usual places where it lives, i.e., where logT < 8 rather than the usual logT > 9.  I was surprised to see the ni56 sticking around for a years when logT < 8.0, so I took a look at the weakreactions.tables in mesa/data/weaklib_data.  You can find the table for ni56 beta decay by searching for "lbeta+    positron emission;     ni56 co56".   The values in the table are log10 of decay rate.   The columns are temperatures in T9 = T*10^-9.  Up at the high T9 end the rates are very large, while down at the low end, including my case of T9 = 0.1, they effectively go to zero.
>
> ni56 co56   by positron emission and electron capture; LMP
>     T9     0.01     0.10     0.20     0.40     0.70     1.00     1.50     2.00     3.00     5.00    10.00    30.00
> lYeRho             lbeta+    positron emission;     ni56 co56
>      1  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.021   -3.557   -1.373   -0.071
>      2  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.021   -3.557   -1.373   -0.071
>      3  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.021   -3.557   -1.373   -0.071
>      4  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.021   -3.557   -1.373   -0.071
>      5  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.021   -3.557   -1.373   -0.071
>      6  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.020   -3.556   -1.373   -0.071
>      7  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.019   -3.553   -1.370   -0.071
>      8  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.019   -3.551   -1.358   -0.068
>      9  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.019   -3.551   -1.354   -0.049
>     10  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.019   -3.551   -1.354   -0.028
>     11  -99.999  -99.999  -69.740  -35.714  -21.132  -15.299  -10.760   -8.472   -6.019   -3.551   -1.354   -0.027
>
>
>
> I had expected to find something more like what I find for mg20 beta decay where the rates are (almost) independent of T.
>
> mg20 na20   by positron emission and electron capture; OHMT
>     T9     0.01     0.10     0.20     0.40     0.70     1.00     1.50     2.00     3.00     5.00    10.00    30.00
> lYeRho             lbeta+    positron emission;     mg20 na20
>      1    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.765    0.766    0.799    1.382
>      2    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.765    0.766    0.799    1.382
>      3    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.765    0.766    0.799    1.382
>      4    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.765    0.766    0.799    1.382
>      5    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.799    1.382
>      6    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.800    1.382
>      7    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.768    0.802    1.382
>      8    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.769    0.811    1.385
>      9    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.769    0.814    1.406
>     10    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.766    0.769    0.814    1.429
>
>
> I thought this might be a bug in the preprocessor that builds the weakreactions.tables file from the separate sources.  The ni56 => co56 reaction rates come from "LMP",
>     LMP: K. Langanke, G. Martínez-Pinedo / Nuclear Physics A 673 (2000) 481–508
> so I checked that input file (mesa/weaklib/preprocessor/input_data/lmp.data).  But I found the "-99.999" entries for beta decay rates there too.
>
>  neg. daughter ni56 z=28 n=28 a=56 q= -1.6240
>  pos. daughter co56 z=27 n=29 a=56 q=  1.6240
>                       +++ ni56 --> co56 +++      --- co56 --> ni56 ---
>    t9   lrho    uf    lbeta+    leps-    lrnu    lbeta-    leps+  lrnubar
>   0.01  1.0  -0.003  -99.999   -8.684   -9.066  -99.999  -99.999  -99.999
>   0.10  1.0  -0.058  -99.999   -9.164   -9.537  -99.999  -99.999  -99.999
>   0.20  1.0  -0.134  -69.740   -9.291   -9.652  -69.759  -74.128  -70.327
>   0.40  1.0  -0.306  -35.714   -9.387   -9.722  -37.930  -38.276  -38.162
>   0.70  1.0  -0.503  -21.132   -8.777   -9.063  -24.300  -23.078  -23.182
>   1.00  1.0  -0.511  -15.299   -7.439   -7.669  -18.824  -17.809  -17.866
>
>
> What's the story here?   Is ni56 stable to beta decay at logT < 8?  ;p    Curiouser and curiouser.
>
> Thanks,
> Bill
>
>
>
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