Relative production rates of ${}^6$He, ${}^9$Be, ${}^{12}$C in astrophysical environments

Abstract

We assume an environment of neutrons and $\alpha$-particles of given density and temperature where nuclear syntheses into ${}^6$He, ${}^9$Be and ${}^{12}$C are possible. We investigate the resulting relative abundance as a function of density and temperature. When the relative abundance of $\alpha$-particles $Y_{\alpha }$ is between 0.2 and 0.9, or larger than 0.9, the largest production is ${}^9$Be or ${}^{12}$C, respectively. When $Y_{\alpha }<0.2$ ${}^6$He is mostly frequently produced for temperatures above about 2 GK whereas the ${}^9$Be production dominates at smaller temperatures.

Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures