[Mesa-users] Regarding r_b8_wk_be8 and reaction rates units

[Diogo Capelo]

Dear MESA users,

I've been trying to reconstruct the solar neutrino radial flux profile 
by source using MESA (-r10398), specifically by exploiting the weak 
reaction rates and element abundances. I've noticed that the B8 decay 
(r_b8_wk_be8) reaction is not present in pp_extras.net, and the decay 
reaction itself is omitted in weak_info.list. In skip_warnings.list, the 
reaction is there (twice, actually), so I understand that it's not in 
reaclib. However, I also know that MESA calculates the total neutrino 
loss, of which the B8 decay neutrino would be a part. My question is, if 
the reaction is not present specifically in the net but its energy 
accounted for, is it assumed to be in equilibrium with another (like in 
the basic network)? It doesn't seem likely, because printing out the 
abundance of B8, I could see it varying. For the same reason, when I 
tried adding Be7 and B8 to the basic network without specifying their 
independent reactions, it didn't work, since they are considered in 
equilibrium there. Is there no way to get the B8 decay rate and the B8 
abundance in the same model, using the same net?

Additionally, I'd like to ask what units the reaction rates are in: I 
assumed they were absolute number of events per unit time and per unit 
volume for the reaction in question, but I've had relatively more 
success replicating the results from the literature (for instance, 
arXiv:1308.3346, Fig. 2 on page 5) by taking into account the densities 
of the reactant(s) (with the exception of the pep and hep neutrinos 
which I still have to figure out).

Thank you very much for your time.